NEWS ROUNDUP
Idaho officers kill four more elk believed to have fled game farm Fish and Game authorities have killed four more elk believed to have escaped from a private hunting reserve in eastern Idaho. And they are continuing the hunt, despite elk rancher Rex Rammell's demands that state officers stand down from Gov. Jim Risch's emergency declaration allowing the animals to be shot on sight. Since the escape, state hunters have shot 14 elk. At least four of the elk did not have ear tags identifying them as domesticated animals, but officials say they still may belong to Rammell. He just may not have properly tagged them. Rammell says he has recovered about 40 head -- including 10 prized bulls....
Column - Forest Service, Two Dot rancher long at odds over public land My grandfather McFarland wintered in the house I live in in 1889. Our current brand was registered in 1902. I lease grass from the U.S. Forest Service and have an outfitting permit. I have Forest Service grazing permits that total 78 animal units per month, or 0.3 percent of my ranch operation. Most hunting is done on private land. I agree that the public has a right to go to their land, but I don't have to surrender my property rights to make it happen. I have been around this ranch all of my life, and most of the time we have allowed people to access the Forest Service's Big Elk Canyon. To get to the canyon you come to the ranch office and sign in. I offered to make that into a written agreement with the Forest Service. That offer was rejected. The ranch owns several sections of timber surrounded by Forest Service land. I was going to do a fuel reduction plan. I applied for a permit to cross Forest Service corners to get to my land. The USFS had this application in their files for years. They came up and viewed the crossings with five people. After three years, I got a bit impatient and started making some calls. This is when I became a villain....
7 black-footed ferrets take 1st step toward the wild For black-footed ferrets, being released in Colorado is almost a death sentence. South Dakota is fairly safe. Wyoming is getting better all the time. But a ferret hitting the ground on the Colorado reintroduction area has only a 10 percent chance of surviving a few months. Fortunately for them, only one of the seven adolescent ferrets being loaded into a pickup at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo on Thursday was slated to stay in its home state. The slender, 2-pound prairie dog hunters chattered and sniffed at the mesh on their cages as their keepers prepared to ship them to Fort Collins for a few weeks of learning to prey on live prairie dogs before they are released. The recovery has two parts: a captive breeding program led by zoos across the country, including Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, and a program to release the animals into the wild. Breeding starts in spring. In the fall, hundreds of ferrets are released at 11 sites in the West....
Editorial - Water deal with Nevada best kept off fast track It's clear that Utah and Nevada ranchers understand the proper order of horse and cart better than the Southern Nevada Water Authority or the Department of Interior. Those two agencies have made a surreptitious deal for a massive groundwater pumping project to benefit burgeoning Las Vegas before getting all the facts about its potential negative effects. The folks whose ranching livelihoods could be threatened by a SNWA plan to drain hundreds of thousands of acre feet of water out of the aquifer under rural valleys in eastern Nevada and western Utah reasonably want water officials to consider hard science before deciding whether to approve the plan. That makes more sense than allowing the SNWA to pull 225,000 acre feet of water out of the arid valleys near the Great Basin National Park and ship it to Las Vegas through a brand-new 200-mile pipeline before reports show what the impact of the project could be. The U.S. Geological Survey is collecting data for a groundwater analysis that will be completed next year. The Bureau of Land Management is doing an environmental impact study that is not yet finished. Moving ahead without the results of those studies to allow the pumping and then monitor its effects after the fact seems to us to be dangerously putting the cart way out ahead of the horse....
Drought relief stalls again in Senate The latest attempt to pass $6.5 billion in drought relief for farmers and ranchers has failed. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., offered an amendment Wednesday that would have added disaster assistance to a Senate port security bill. Republicans on Thursday blocked the amendment with a procedural maneuver, saying it is not germane to the legislation. The amendment was based on two separate pieces of disaster assistance legislation introduced by Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont. Burns, whose bill would have added about $230 million for wildfire recovery, expressed disappointment at the decision. “I don’t think the fires we’ve had in Montana yield to a point of order,” Burns said of the procedural maneuver....What a charade. They knew the point of order would be made before they offered the amendment. Pure political theater for the folks back home.
Column - The Endangered Species Act Maybe this is just what we needed. For the past several years, I have been trying to get the attention of our elected leaders at the local, state and federal level to mount a campaign to push back hard against an organization called the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD). This organization has served to establish Santa Barbara County as ground zero with respect to the Endangered Species Act. The damage being incurred is as a result of the fact that the CBD files lawsuits to accomplish three goals or means to their end. Our elected officials and the staff at all levels of government that work for them don't do anything effective to counter these goals by way of effectively fighting the lawsuits or changing the law to prevent more of the same. What the CBD does first is they get species listed. Santa Barbara County has more species listed than any other county in the continental United States! The CBD then sues to get critical habitat for the species designated, which has served to encumber almost our entire county. As an example, if you add the critical habitat designation and range of the species for the tiger salamander, which typically occurs on ranchlands, in areas away from waterbodies, and the land designated for the red-legged frog, which typically occurs near water bodies, there isn't much of this county left unencumbered! Throw into the mix another 20-30 species, and well, you get the idea. Now, the CBD has moved to phase three of their plan, which will serve to limit the ability of landowners to make productive use of their property as a result of the critical habitat designations....
DEATH to TUI CHUBS A white-suited man strolling along the Diamond Lake Resort dock systematically pumps death into the depths of Diamond Lake. From a backpack and a hose, he dispenses lethal levels of the pesticide rotenone, culminating a five-year, $5.6 million effort to kill millions of unwanted tui chubs that have robbed the lake's natural ecology and trampled its once-famous trout fishing. Jim Caplan, the former Umpqua National Forest supervisor who signed the chubs' death warrant in 2004, watches this "collision of values" before him — poisoning a lake in the name of saving it — and laments the loss. "In one sense, it's a tragedy that these resources have to be expended and, oh, so much life has to be destroyed," Caplan says. "But there's a higher value here." Reclaimed water quality, a rejuvenated ecosystem and the eventual revival of what once was Oregon's most popular trout fishery all make Thursday's massive fish-kill a necessary evil, he says....
Firefighting by agency fires a dispute A Bush administration study on whether some jobs in the U.S. Forest Service could be done better by private contractors compromises the agency's in-house firefighting force, say groups representing federal employees. Administration officials dispute the claim. But the question of whether "competitive sourcing" studies -- which determine whether nongovernment activities should be kept in-house or turned over to private firms -- undermine the "fire militia" has caught the attention of Congress. The Government Accountability Office this year began looking into the issue after a bipartisan group of senators asked if the outsourcing competition studies give enough consideration to the Forest Service's long-term ability to manage wildfires. While Congress has prohibited the Forest Service and the Interior Department from studying outsourcing of federal jobs that are dedicated to fire suppression and management full time, there's no similar protection for staffers in other jobs who are cross-trained in fire duties, say union officials, wildland firefighter associations and watchdog groups. "If you outsource Clark Kent, what are you going to do when you need Superman?" said Mark Davis, a Forest Service chemist in Madison, Wis., and a member of the Forest Service Council, an arm of the union representing federal employees....Unbelievable. Now they think they are Superman.
Streamlining forest “Health” Legislation that would cut across federal, state and tribal boundaries and suspend standard management rules in a bid to streamline forest projects was unveiled by Bush administration officials Sept. 5. The new approach is needed, they say, to react to increasing danger from forest fires and bark beetle infestation. The “Healthy Forests Partnership Act” sent to Congress would allow for the declaration of “healthy forests partnership zones” wherein the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management could grant no-bid, long-term contracts to state and tribal governments to prepare and carry out fuel reduction projects on federal land. “We’ve made great progress under the Healthy Forests Initiative and have improved the health of millions of acres of forests and rangelands across America. This legislation, however, will allow us to work more effectively with our state and local government partners to fully achieve the desired effects of HFI,” Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth said at a Denver press conference on the issue. Conservation groups who have criticized provisions of the 2003 Healthy Forests Initiative aimed at speeding up projects say this new proposal works more aggressively to reduce public involvement and circumvent existing environmental laws. Mike Peterson, executive director of the Lands Council, characterizes the act as a “privatization scheme” because it would turn control of wide swaths of national forests over to state entities, which could subcontract the work. The “partnership projects” and “partnership zones” would be exempt from certain provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Forest Management Act, and judicial oversight of these projects would also be restricted, which concerns Peterson and other groups including Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Wilderness Society and the WildWest Institute....What? Share Superman's cape? This can't be.
Utah's acting BLM director given national assignment Henri Bisson, acting director for the Utah Bureau of Land Management, was named the national BLM's deputy director of operations on Thursday. "Henri is one of the Bureau's most highly regarded managers," BLM Director Kathleen Clarke said in a statement. "He has a deep understanding of our multiple use mission and is a skilled professional who will bring broad expertise in field operations to Washington, D.C." Bisson will manage the BLM's daily operations, which includes 9,000 employees and a budget of more than $1.7 billion. He will take over the post in November, after Clarke's chief of staff, Selma Sierra, arrives in Utah to assume the state director job permanently. At the request of Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., the Interior Department's inspector general is investigating a meeting between Bisson, Utah county officials and oil company representatives to determine whether he made commitments to influence land-use plans in the state to expand oil and gas development....
Federal agencies grow leery of S. Utah land sale proposal The Bush administration expressed reservations Thursday about key provisions of a bill, already opposed by environmental groups, aimed at shaping the explosive growth in Washington County. The Interior Department voiced concerns over language in the bill directing the department to sell off up to 20,000 acres of land now under control of the Bureau of Land Management. And the White House budget office is not satisfied with limits placed on the $1 billion the sales could rake in. "The Department of Interior supports the goals of the legislation, but opposes provisions that require lands to be sold, regardless of whether they have been identified for disposal," Deputy Assistant Interior Secretary Chad Calvert told a House subcommittee. "Furthermore, the administration believes that all taxpayers should receive some benefit from the sale." The bill would earmark 85 percent of the money from the land sales for conservation initiatives, but the White House Office of Management and Budget does not want its hands tied. The administration hopes to work through the issues with the bill's sponsors, Republican Sen. Bob Bennett and Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson, Calvert said. Matheson pointed out that the bill divides the money using the same formula Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., used in two similar Nevada bills. But Calvert said the White House budget office "would like to revisit that."....There they go again, messin' with Superman's cape.
Group fights for equality of horses Like people, horses are found in different colors — and like humans, horses were discriminated against because of the color of their coat. Before the 1960s, "painted" horses were considered inferior to those of solid color. Painted horses are a mixed-color breed deriving from a blend of the quarter horse and thoroughbred blood lines. It wasn't until 1962 that a handful of people decided to change ranchers' perspectives on painted horses by forming the American Paint Horse Association. APHA gives painted-horse enthusiasts an opportunity to see what they can do in different events such as roping and trail courses. The events are meant to show the horse's skills. Marla Fadel, Utah APHA show secretary, said for years painted horses were considered outcasts and horsemen wouldn't breed them. A lot of people thought if a horse had white feet, they were considered weaker than if they had dark feet. "Paints weren't considered as good a quality," she said. Jerry Circelli, APHA director of public relations and marketing, said the association wanted to prove painted horses could do things just like any other horse. APHA has grown, and painted horses have been recognized as equals to quarter horses and thoroughbreds. APHA president Carl Parker said there are 890,000 registered painted horses and 102,000 members in the association....
Friday, September 15, 2006
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Interior Official Assails Agency for Ethics Slide
The Interior Department’s chief official responsible for investigating abuses and overseeing operations accused the top officials at the agency on Wednesday of tolerating widespread ethical failures, from cronyism to cover-ups of incompetence. “Simply stated, short of a crime, anything goes at the highest levels of the Department of the Interior,” charged Earl E. Devaney, the Interior Department’s inspector general, at a hearing of the House Government Reform subcommittee on energy. “I have observed one instance after another when the good work of my office has been disregarded by the department,” he continued. “Ethics failures on the part of senior department officials — taking the form of appearances of impropriety, favoritism and bias — have been routinely dismissed with a promise ‘not to do it again.’ ” The blistering attack was part of Mr. Devaney’s report on what he called the Interior Department’s “bureaucratic bungling” of oil and gas leases signed in the late 1990’s, mistakes that are now expected to cost the government billions of dollars but were covered up for six years. While these leases were the specific focus of the hearing, Mr. Devaney directed most of his criticism at what he called a broader organizational culture at the Interior Department of denial and “defending the indefensible.”...Mr. Devaney’s broadside against the Interior Department’s culture dovetailed with his tentative conclusions in his most recent investigation, into how the department had managed to sign 1,100 leases for offshore drilling that inadvertently let energy companies escape billions of dollars in royalties on gas and oil produced in the Gulf of Mexico. The leases, signed in 1998 and 1999 during the Clinton administration, allow companies to escape normal federal royalties — usually 12.5 percent of sales — on the tens of millions of barrels of oil on each lease. The royalty break was intended as an incentive for deepwater drilling, but it was also supposed to end if oil prices climbed above a “threshold” level of about $34 a barrel. The leases at issue omitted that restriction, and department officials kept quiet about their mistake for six years after they discovered it. The problem was first disclosed by The New York Times in March. Government officials now estimate that the mistake could cost the Treasury as much as $10 billion over the next decade....
The Interior Department’s chief official responsible for investigating abuses and overseeing operations accused the top officials at the agency on Wednesday of tolerating widespread ethical failures, from cronyism to cover-ups of incompetence. “Simply stated, short of a crime, anything goes at the highest levels of the Department of the Interior,” charged Earl E. Devaney, the Interior Department’s inspector general, at a hearing of the House Government Reform subcommittee on energy. “I have observed one instance after another when the good work of my office has been disregarded by the department,” he continued. “Ethics failures on the part of senior department officials — taking the form of appearances of impropriety, favoritism and bias — have been routinely dismissed with a promise ‘not to do it again.’ ” The blistering attack was part of Mr. Devaney’s report on what he called the Interior Department’s “bureaucratic bungling” of oil and gas leases signed in the late 1990’s, mistakes that are now expected to cost the government billions of dollars but were covered up for six years. While these leases were the specific focus of the hearing, Mr. Devaney directed most of his criticism at what he called a broader organizational culture at the Interior Department of denial and “defending the indefensible.”...Mr. Devaney’s broadside against the Interior Department’s culture dovetailed with his tentative conclusions in his most recent investigation, into how the department had managed to sign 1,100 leases for offshore drilling that inadvertently let energy companies escape billions of dollars in royalties on gas and oil produced in the Gulf of Mexico. The leases, signed in 1998 and 1999 during the Clinton administration, allow companies to escape normal federal royalties — usually 12.5 percent of sales — on the tens of millions of barrels of oil on each lease. The royalty break was intended as an incentive for deepwater drilling, but it was also supposed to end if oil prices climbed above a “threshold” level of about $34 a barrel. The leases at issue omitted that restriction, and department officials kept quiet about their mistake for six years after they discovered it. The problem was first disclosed by The New York Times in March. Government officials now estimate that the mistake could cost the Treasury as much as $10 billion over the next decade....
The federal government stops paying its "property taxes."
What if the largest property owner in your county suddenly decided he wasn't going to pay property taxes anymore? And, worse, there wasn't a damn thing you could do about it. Some 700 counties scattered across rural America now find themselves in precisely this position. And the deadbeat property owner is none other than the U.S. government, the owner of some 90 million acres of timberland--holdings that account for more than half the entire land base in many counties. The history here is straightforward. Since 1906, counties holding federal forestlands have received a share of the revenue generated by various management-related activities, including timber harvesting. While technically not a property tax, revenue sharing placated the Western solons who feared nationalizing public domain lands would make community formation impossible. But the program has slowly ground to a halt over the last 20 years as one administration after another lost its enthusiasm for harvesting federally owned timber. West of the Cascades in Oregon and Washington, folks blame the Endangered Species Act, lawyers and the northern spotted owl, in that order. Down South, it's red-cockaded woodpeckers. In the Midwest, it's Indiana bats. Here in the Intermountain West, where it is still possible to drive all night without seeing another set of headlights, we prefer to blame Eastern dilettantes, trust-fund babies, liberals in general and soccer moms who have no have no idea where lumber comes from or how tough it is to make a living out here...Congress tried to calm the waters, first in 1993 by granting counties hurt by the owl's 1991 listing annual "owl guarantee payments"; and then, in 2000, by allocating $500 million in "safety net" funding to help all federal lands counties cover their budget shortfalls. But safety net funding wasn't designed to permanently replace lost harvest revenue; and now, in a rare moment of fiscal responsibility, Congress appears poised to cancel the deal--a possibility that has many a county commissioner on the warpath...What's missing from this dialogue is a plain-spoken admission by Messrs. Wyden and Smith that the $500 million is chump change compared to what's really been lost in recent years. Consider this: In 1991, 8.5 billion board feet of commercial timber was harvested from national forests. That 8.5 billion generated $5.5 billion in local income, another $325.5 million in shared harvest receipts and $831 million in federal income taxes. Grand total--$6.656 billion; more than 13 times what counties now get in safety net funding....
What if the largest property owner in your county suddenly decided he wasn't going to pay property taxes anymore? And, worse, there wasn't a damn thing you could do about it. Some 700 counties scattered across rural America now find themselves in precisely this position. And the deadbeat property owner is none other than the U.S. government, the owner of some 90 million acres of timberland--holdings that account for more than half the entire land base in many counties. The history here is straightforward. Since 1906, counties holding federal forestlands have received a share of the revenue generated by various management-related activities, including timber harvesting. While technically not a property tax, revenue sharing placated the Western solons who feared nationalizing public domain lands would make community formation impossible. But the program has slowly ground to a halt over the last 20 years as one administration after another lost its enthusiasm for harvesting federally owned timber. West of the Cascades in Oregon and Washington, folks blame the Endangered Species Act, lawyers and the northern spotted owl, in that order. Down South, it's red-cockaded woodpeckers. In the Midwest, it's Indiana bats. Here in the Intermountain West, where it is still possible to drive all night without seeing another set of headlights, we prefer to blame Eastern dilettantes, trust-fund babies, liberals in general and soccer moms who have no have no idea where lumber comes from or how tough it is to make a living out here...Congress tried to calm the waters, first in 1993 by granting counties hurt by the owl's 1991 listing annual "owl guarantee payments"; and then, in 2000, by allocating $500 million in "safety net" funding to help all federal lands counties cover their budget shortfalls. But safety net funding wasn't designed to permanently replace lost harvest revenue; and now, in a rare moment of fiscal responsibility, Congress appears poised to cancel the deal--a possibility that has many a county commissioner on the warpath...What's missing from this dialogue is a plain-spoken admission by Messrs. Wyden and Smith that the $500 million is chump change compared to what's really been lost in recent years. Consider this: In 1991, 8.5 billion board feet of commercial timber was harvested from national forests. That 8.5 billion generated $5.5 billion in local income, another $325.5 million in shared harvest receipts and $831 million in federal income taxes. Grand total--$6.656 billion; more than 13 times what counties now get in safety net funding....
NEWS ROUNDUP
Wild wolf sighted, filmed in Oregon A young, black wolf appears to be roaming a roughly 120-square-mile section of Wallowa County in northeast Oregon, biologists say. The animal was videotaped in late July and has been sighted repeatedly since then. A local rancher spotted it Sunday near some cows, but it ran off when the rancher drove toward it. The wolf appears to be alone, biologists said. It is protected by both the federal Endangered Species Act and Oregon's own state Endangered Species Act. Biologists have long predicted wolves would arrive in Oregon from Idaho, where they were reintroduced in 1995. The wolf population in Idaho is booming. It is the first wolf known to take up residence in Oregon since approval of a state management plan for wolves. The plan sets a goal of four breeding pairs of wolves each in Eastern Oregon and Western Oregon, and calls for state biologists to monitor them....
Arctic Ice Melting Rapidly, Study Says Arctic sea ice in winter is melting far faster than before, two new NASA studies reported Wednesday, a new and alarming trend that researchers say threatens the ocean's delicate ecosystem. Scientists point to the sudden and rapid melting as a sure sign of man-made global warming. Scientists have long worried about melting Arcticsea ice in the summer, but they had not seen a big winter drop in sea ice, even though they expected it. For more than 25 years Arctic sea ice has slowly diminished in winter by about 1.5 percent per decade. But in the past two years the melting has occurred at rates 10 to 15 times faster. From 2004 to 2005, the amount of ice dropped 2.3 percent; and over the past year, it's declined by another 1.9 percent, according to Comiso....
Proposed rock quarry running into opposition in North Bay Conservation groups and Sonoma County residents have stepped forward to oppose a plan by a North Bay mining company to establish a large-scale commercial quarry on a 553-acre ranch near Bodega Bay, saying that the development could spoil one of the most scenic and historic areas on the North Coast. The Dutra Group, whose San Rafael Rock Quarry is being depleted, is negotiating to buy the Bodega property from a longtime ranching family. The group has already conducted a geotechnical investigation of the site, taking core samples of mineral deposits. But conservationists fear that mining the site would destroy the habitat for federally protected steelhead trout. Nearby residents say they fear that trucks, noise and air pollution would come with mining. They also say that a quarry would drive away tourists and undercut land values. "People come here to escape development," said Maya Craig, a spokeswoman for Friends of the Bodega Bay Watershed, which opposes the possible land transfer. "We want to ensure that the zoning laws that protect the land are secure and not vulnerable to out-of-county influence."....
Coalition to unveil energy plan A new energy plan for Colorado will be unveiled Thursday by a coalition of farmers, corn growers, labor unions and environmental groups. The campaign, dubbed the Plan for Colorado's New Energy Future, will include aggressive renewable energy targets for the state such as getting 20 percent of its electricity from wind, sun, and plant and animal waste by 2015. The plan also will direct the state to include at least 10 percent bio-fuel, such as ethanol and biodiesel, in its overall fuel consumption and improve energy savings through conservation efforts. Supporters will call on candidates for the legislature and the governor's office to endorse the plan, said Mike Bowman, a rancher from Wray and a Republican co-chairing the campaign. Bowman said efforts to push a new energy plan stemmed from the state's enthusiastic response to Amendment 37, a ballot measure passed by voters in November 2004, and the utilities' prompt compliance with it. The amendment directs Colorado's top seven utilities to obtain a portion of their electricity from the sun, wind, and plant and animal waste. It calls for 3 percent in 2007 and says utilities must get up to 10 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2015 - at least 4 percent of that from solar....
Dead Deer Found in Some West Central Texas Counties in Recent Weeks With deer season just around the corner, deer experts are concerned about reports of an unusually high number of dead deer in several West Central Texas counties. Dr. Dale Rollins, Texas Cooperative Extension wildlife specialist at San Angelo, said most of the calls he has received are from Schleicher County landowners who have found dead deer at water sources. The affected region encompasses an area roughly from Eden to Ozona to Sterling City, said Dr. Don Davis, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station veterinary pathobiologist. "While some level of deer mortality is not newsworthy, it looks like we have a hotspot developing for epizootic hemorrhagic disease," Rollins said. "Epizootic hemorrhagic disease is a viral disease very similar to bluetongue in sheep and cattle, but EHD tends to be most common in white-tailed deer....
Wildfires take the worst toll in acreage since '60 Wildfires across the country have scorched more land in 2006 than in any year since at least 1960, burning an area twice the size of New Jersey. But the flames have mainly raced across sparsely populated desert, causing fewer firefighter deaths than in previous years. As of Wednesday, blazes had torched 8.69 million acres, or 13,584 square miles, just above last year's total of 13,573 square miles, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. Reliable records were not kept before 1960, officials said. The annual average over the past 10 years is 4.9 million acres. Federal officials attributed the increase to two consecutive seasons of hot and dry weather that left forest and ranges parched and easily ignited by lightning. The Interior Department and the U.S. Forest Service have spent about $1.25 billion fighting the fires since the fiscal 2006 year began last Oct. 1. Meanwhile, a Montana wildfire nearly doubled in size Wednesday, prompting evacuation orders for about 325 homes....hmmmm, no mention of how Federal land management practices have contributed to the problem. It's too bad they don't have figures prior to the 60's, cause the 60's are when they started screwing thing up.
Who Is the Greenest Governor? The Golden State, long a leader in environmental protection, is just getting greener and greener. On August 30, nearing the 11th hour of an overstuffed California legislative session, Assembly Bill 32, also known as the Global Warming Solutions Act, passed in the Assembly and then proceeded to the desk of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. To the satisfaction of environmentalists nationwide, and the outrage of GOP loyalists, Schwarzenegger signed it, instantaneously catapulting California to a leadership position in emissions reductions. It also instantly created a problem for state Treasurer Phil Angelides, the Democratic candidate for governor, and his attempt to present himself as the greenest candidate in this race. Supporters of Angelides argue that Schwarzenegger is not an environmentalist at all and his reasons for passing bills such as AB 32 are motivated only by the November election. Angelides, they say, is the real environmentalist. His record of advocacy goes back a couple of decades and he’s received numerous awards to prove it. He also drives a Toyota Prius, for what it’s worth. Schwarzenegger, however, has often bucked the GOP orthodoxy to sign important eco-legislation – enough times to give him a good reputation with environmentalists. For the first time in California history, it appears that the environment ranks at the top of the list of issues that could decide the gubernatorial race. Both candidates are showcasing their most formidable green achievements and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between the two....
Researchers looking into dying aspens Aspen trees have been dying off, leaving dwindling numbers of the white-barked fixture of the Western mountain landscape. Nobody is quite sure why. More than 100 researchers gathered at Utah State University this week for a two-day conference called "Restoring the West: Aspen Restoration." The trees reproduce with a wide root system, that spawns other trees nearby. Even if the parent tree dies, the surviving root system can support new trees. U.S. Forest Service researcher Wayne Shepperd said in some Colorado stands, the entire root networks have perished. "If we're losing roots," Shepperd said, "that's going to change the amount of aspens on the landscape." The researchers are trying to figure out why aspens, native to the higher elevations of the region, have been dying. In addition to ecological diversity and the aesthetics of an aspen grove on a quiet mountainside, the trees also affect watersheds. With the decrease in aspens, conifers are encroaching on aspen territory. "There may be significant loss of water resources that could be coming out of these watersheds," said Ron Ryel, a Utah State University researcher on wildland resources....
Multiple use advocates descend on capitol Approximately 100 members of grassroots associations gathered at the Montana State Capitol on Saturday to present Gov. Brian Schweitzer with petitions signed by more than 7,800 Montanans opposed to the 2001 Clinton Roadless Rule and Attorney General Mike McGrath's support of the rule. Joining the group were U.S. Senator Conrad Burns and U.S. Representative Denny Rehberg, Montana Public Service Commissioner Doug Mood, Montana State Senator Jerry O'Neil and Montana GOP Legislative Campaign Coordinator Larry Grinde. Forest-use groups present were: Citizens for Balanced Use, Families for Outdoor Recreation, Montana Trail Vehicle Riders Association, Montana Snowmobile Association, Montana Four Wheel Drive Association, Montanans For Multiple Use Association, Montana Property Rights Association, and the Treasure State Alliance. At the front steps of the Capitol, these groups presented Hal Harper, Governor Schweitzer's representative, with the petitions that stated: We the undersigned wish to voice our opposition to the 2001 Clinton Roadless Rule and Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath's continued support for this rule. We the undersigned furthermore ask Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer not to make any petition to President Bush asking these lands be further studied or preserved as roadless areas for future wilderness. We object: • to having our access to our National Forests restricted; • to the gating and destruction of our forest roads; • to having our National Forests mismanaged and reduced to fire fuel; • to being subjected to arbitrary restrictions concerning our preferred activities while on our National Forests. We are the people who live, work, pay taxes and vote in this state....
Judge: Residents cannot sue USFS over lost houses Bitterroot Valley residents who allege their homes were destroyed by a backburn that got away from firefighters cannot sue the U.S. Forest Service over their losses, a federal judge here has ruled. U. S. District Judge Donald Molloy said the agency and its employees are immune from such lawsuits because they were acting under a “discretionary function” exception of federal law when they set the burn. “Whether the government employees’ actions were wise, foolish or negligent is irrelevant in considering whether the exception applies,” Molloy wrote in his ruling, which is dated Aug. 31. The case stemmed from the massive wildfires that burned tens of thousands of acres in the Bitterroot Valley south of Missoula in 2000. In a lawsuit filed in 2003, more than 100 residents sued the Forest Service, alleging that the damage and destruction to their homes was a direct result of a backburn set by fire crews attempting to slow the advancing wildfire. The homeowners and their insurance companies alleged the firefighters violated their own policies when they lit the Aug. 6 backburn, and should have known there was a strong chance it would endanger lives and property in the area. They claimed the backburn was not authorized, was set without warning area residents and was “highly imprudent.” At least 10 homes were destroyed by the fire....
House approves San Ildefonso Pueblo’s land claim The US House has approved legislation that would settle San Ildefonso Pueblo’s decades-old claim to thousands of acres of ancestral land. The bill was passed earlier by the Senate and now heads to President Bush for approval. The measure authorizes land transactions affecting San Ildefonso and Santa Clara pueblos, Los Alamos County and the Forest Service. The pueblos would be able to add land to their pueblos, and the county would be able to protect its water wells. The settlement will resolve the last remaining claim before the Indian Claims Commission, which was established in 1946....
A decade cools the controversy With the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument entering its second decade, it's time to forget the days of yore - and ore. So says Garfield County Engineer Brian Bremner, who challenged scientists this week to pass on a new way of thinking to the next generation that will manage the 1.9 million-acre preserve in southern Utah. “Extractive industries like coal mining and timber harvesting are the old days," he said, "and science represents the new days." Bremner was one of several speakers to address scientists, land managers and government officials attending a “Learning From the Land” science symposium at Southern Utah University. The Cedar City meeting marks the 10-year anniversary - set for Monday - of the monument. On Sept. 18, 1996, then-President Clinton created the preserve, which the federal Bureau of Land Management oversees. The monument - with its vast, austere and rugged landscapes - set the stage for a contentious decade as border communities fought to preserve a way of life that became more complex on lands managed with more scrutiny by the federal government....
Goshute leader calls N-waste rulings 'thin' The leader of the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians used the words "pretty thin" to describe last week's federal actions that may have been the death knell for a plan to store nuclear waste on his Tooele County reservation. After reviewing decisions by two Interior Department agencies to deny the lease for the Private Fuel Storage consortium, Leon Bear, the disputed chairman of the Goshutes, said the explanations did nothing to justify the potential loss of millions of dollars in future earnings for his small band of about 125 people. "The thing is, I felt that they were kind of skating on thin ice on the issues they brought up," Bear told the Deseret Morning News Monday. "We've met all the conditions of that lease for approval." PFS had planned to move as much as 44,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel to the temporary storage site in Skull Valley about 50 miles from Salt Lake City. The waste would have been stored there until a permanent site becomes available....
Column - Vegas water plan should whet our thirst for answers The lack of water conservation in Las Vegas, where fountains, fake lakes and huge swimming pools are the norm, should make Sin City's effort to grab water from the dry Great Basin an affront to those who treasure the natural world. Why should special places such as Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, the Goshute Range and the Great Salt Lake be potentially sacrificed to accommodate the ugly sprawling mess that Las Vegas has become? And why should a plan to divert as much as 200,000 acre feet of water annually from the Great Basin be fast-tracked when scientists don't know what effect the pumping will have? Does any credible scientist within the Department of Interior believe the fix isn't in when a new agreement requires the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs to withdraw protests filed against this scheme? The agreement is so much horsefeathers. Does anyone really believe that once Vegas gets its hands on the Great Basin water, it will turn off the spigot to preserve wildlife?....
Groups win suit over water flows Former Interior Secretary Gale Norton's decision to let Colorado limit water flows in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park was illegal and "nonsensical," a federal judge ruled Wednesday. U.S. District Court Judge Clarence Brimmer also said the 2003 agreement between Norton and Colorado was "arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion." Brimmer's long-awaited decision was hailed by conservation groups as a victory over Bush administration policies they said ignored science. Gov. Bill Owens and attorneys for the Interior Department hadn't read the decision Wednesday and were unable to comment. In the pact, Norton let Colorado set the year-round minimum flow at 300 cubic feet per second for the Gunnison River within the park. Trout Unlimited, Western Resource Advocates and other conservation groups sued, arguing that 30 years of federal research called for periodic higher flows of 10,000 cfs....
IRS extends tax break for ranchers suffering drought Cattle producers nationwide forced to sell animals because of drought won't have to pay capital gains on their profits for a year after parched conditions end, the Internal Revenue Service has announced. If ranchers replace their animals, their tax liability for sales no longer exists, officials said. Previous legislation gave cattlemen four years — beginning in 2002 — to replace the livestock sold because of drought without recognizing a capital gain. Last week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson extended the provision for an additional year if in the 12 months ending Aug. 31 there was severe, extreme or exceptional drought conditions in a particular area. "Your clock doesn't start ticking until your area recovers enough that it's out of those three categories of drought," National Cattlemen's Beef Association spokesman Joe Schuele said. "This just offers them time to make those (buying) decisions at a time when conditions are better."....
Wyoming recognized as free of brucellosis The federal government declared Wyoming's cattle herds free of brucellosis, meaning costly restrictions placed on the state's producers over the past 2½ years can be eased, state officials said Tuesday. The decision by the U.S. Agriculture Department to declare the state brucellosis-free will be official in the next several days when it is published in the Federal Register, according to Gov. Dave Freduenthal's office. "It is a tribute to the brucellosis task force and the others around the state who worked to make this effort successful," Freudenthal said in a prepared statement. "It also demonstrates the importance of the producers, hunters and Game and Fish in the eastern and western parts of the state working and staying together so that we can retain statewide brucellosis-free status." Brucellosis is a bacterial disease that can cause pregnant bison, cattle and elk to abort their fetuses....
Three Former Chiefs of Natural Resources Conservation Service Praise Introduction of Energy and Conservation Bill Benefitting Farmers Three former chiefs of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) praised the introduction today of the first major agriculture bill introduced prior to the 2007 expiration of the current farm bill because it will help farmers address the nation's energy crisis by boosting funding for renewable energy development on farms, ranches and forest lands. The bipartisan legislation also would provide consumers with greater access to healthy foods and double conservation spending to provide cleaner air, water and wildlife habitat, and help stabilize global warming over the life of the next farm bill. The bill, "The Healthy Farms, Foods and Fuels Act of 2006," is sponsored by U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) and has 26 cosponsors. Among other things, the Healthy Farms, Foods and Fuels Act, will: -- Increase from $200 million to $2 billion annual loan guarantees for renewable energy development on farms. -- Expand programs that provide local, healthy food choices to our school children and dramatically expand coupon programs that allow elderly and low income Americans to shop at farmer's markets. -- Double incentives to $2 billion a year for farmers and ranchers to protect drinking water supplies and make other environmental improvements. -- Provide funding to restore nearly 3 million acres of wetlands. -- Provide funding to protect 6 million acres of farm and ranch land from sprawl....
Wild wolf sighted, filmed in Oregon A young, black wolf appears to be roaming a roughly 120-square-mile section of Wallowa County in northeast Oregon, biologists say. The animal was videotaped in late July and has been sighted repeatedly since then. A local rancher spotted it Sunday near some cows, but it ran off when the rancher drove toward it. The wolf appears to be alone, biologists said. It is protected by both the federal Endangered Species Act and Oregon's own state Endangered Species Act. Biologists have long predicted wolves would arrive in Oregon from Idaho, where they were reintroduced in 1995. The wolf population in Idaho is booming. It is the first wolf known to take up residence in Oregon since approval of a state management plan for wolves. The plan sets a goal of four breeding pairs of wolves each in Eastern Oregon and Western Oregon, and calls for state biologists to monitor them....
Arctic Ice Melting Rapidly, Study Says Arctic sea ice in winter is melting far faster than before, two new NASA studies reported Wednesday, a new and alarming trend that researchers say threatens the ocean's delicate ecosystem. Scientists point to the sudden and rapid melting as a sure sign of man-made global warming. Scientists have long worried about melting Arcticsea ice in the summer, but they had not seen a big winter drop in sea ice, even though they expected it. For more than 25 years Arctic sea ice has slowly diminished in winter by about 1.5 percent per decade. But in the past two years the melting has occurred at rates 10 to 15 times faster. From 2004 to 2005, the amount of ice dropped 2.3 percent; and over the past year, it's declined by another 1.9 percent, according to Comiso....
Proposed rock quarry running into opposition in North Bay Conservation groups and Sonoma County residents have stepped forward to oppose a plan by a North Bay mining company to establish a large-scale commercial quarry on a 553-acre ranch near Bodega Bay, saying that the development could spoil one of the most scenic and historic areas on the North Coast. The Dutra Group, whose San Rafael Rock Quarry is being depleted, is negotiating to buy the Bodega property from a longtime ranching family. The group has already conducted a geotechnical investigation of the site, taking core samples of mineral deposits. But conservationists fear that mining the site would destroy the habitat for federally protected steelhead trout. Nearby residents say they fear that trucks, noise and air pollution would come with mining. They also say that a quarry would drive away tourists and undercut land values. "People come here to escape development," said Maya Craig, a spokeswoman for Friends of the Bodega Bay Watershed, which opposes the possible land transfer. "We want to ensure that the zoning laws that protect the land are secure and not vulnerable to out-of-county influence."....
Coalition to unveil energy plan A new energy plan for Colorado will be unveiled Thursday by a coalition of farmers, corn growers, labor unions and environmental groups. The campaign, dubbed the Plan for Colorado's New Energy Future, will include aggressive renewable energy targets for the state such as getting 20 percent of its electricity from wind, sun, and plant and animal waste by 2015. The plan also will direct the state to include at least 10 percent bio-fuel, such as ethanol and biodiesel, in its overall fuel consumption and improve energy savings through conservation efforts. Supporters will call on candidates for the legislature and the governor's office to endorse the plan, said Mike Bowman, a rancher from Wray and a Republican co-chairing the campaign. Bowman said efforts to push a new energy plan stemmed from the state's enthusiastic response to Amendment 37, a ballot measure passed by voters in November 2004, and the utilities' prompt compliance with it. The amendment directs Colorado's top seven utilities to obtain a portion of their electricity from the sun, wind, and plant and animal waste. It calls for 3 percent in 2007 and says utilities must get up to 10 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2015 - at least 4 percent of that from solar....
Dead Deer Found in Some West Central Texas Counties in Recent Weeks With deer season just around the corner, deer experts are concerned about reports of an unusually high number of dead deer in several West Central Texas counties. Dr. Dale Rollins, Texas Cooperative Extension wildlife specialist at San Angelo, said most of the calls he has received are from Schleicher County landowners who have found dead deer at water sources. The affected region encompasses an area roughly from Eden to Ozona to Sterling City, said Dr. Don Davis, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station veterinary pathobiologist. "While some level of deer mortality is not newsworthy, it looks like we have a hotspot developing for epizootic hemorrhagic disease," Rollins said. "Epizootic hemorrhagic disease is a viral disease very similar to bluetongue in sheep and cattle, but EHD tends to be most common in white-tailed deer....
Wildfires take the worst toll in acreage since '60 Wildfires across the country have scorched more land in 2006 than in any year since at least 1960, burning an area twice the size of New Jersey. But the flames have mainly raced across sparsely populated desert, causing fewer firefighter deaths than in previous years. As of Wednesday, blazes had torched 8.69 million acres, or 13,584 square miles, just above last year's total of 13,573 square miles, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. Reliable records were not kept before 1960, officials said. The annual average over the past 10 years is 4.9 million acres. Federal officials attributed the increase to two consecutive seasons of hot and dry weather that left forest and ranges parched and easily ignited by lightning. The Interior Department and the U.S. Forest Service have spent about $1.25 billion fighting the fires since the fiscal 2006 year began last Oct. 1. Meanwhile, a Montana wildfire nearly doubled in size Wednesday, prompting evacuation orders for about 325 homes....hmmmm, no mention of how Federal land management practices have contributed to the problem. It's too bad they don't have figures prior to the 60's, cause the 60's are when they started screwing thing up.
Who Is the Greenest Governor? The Golden State, long a leader in environmental protection, is just getting greener and greener. On August 30, nearing the 11th hour of an overstuffed California legislative session, Assembly Bill 32, also known as the Global Warming Solutions Act, passed in the Assembly and then proceeded to the desk of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. To the satisfaction of environmentalists nationwide, and the outrage of GOP loyalists, Schwarzenegger signed it, instantaneously catapulting California to a leadership position in emissions reductions. It also instantly created a problem for state Treasurer Phil Angelides, the Democratic candidate for governor, and his attempt to present himself as the greenest candidate in this race. Supporters of Angelides argue that Schwarzenegger is not an environmentalist at all and his reasons for passing bills such as AB 32 are motivated only by the November election. Angelides, they say, is the real environmentalist. His record of advocacy goes back a couple of decades and he’s received numerous awards to prove it. He also drives a Toyota Prius, for what it’s worth. Schwarzenegger, however, has often bucked the GOP orthodoxy to sign important eco-legislation – enough times to give him a good reputation with environmentalists. For the first time in California history, it appears that the environment ranks at the top of the list of issues that could decide the gubernatorial race. Both candidates are showcasing their most formidable green achievements and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between the two....
Researchers looking into dying aspens Aspen trees have been dying off, leaving dwindling numbers of the white-barked fixture of the Western mountain landscape. Nobody is quite sure why. More than 100 researchers gathered at Utah State University this week for a two-day conference called "Restoring the West: Aspen Restoration." The trees reproduce with a wide root system, that spawns other trees nearby. Even if the parent tree dies, the surviving root system can support new trees. U.S. Forest Service researcher Wayne Shepperd said in some Colorado stands, the entire root networks have perished. "If we're losing roots," Shepperd said, "that's going to change the amount of aspens on the landscape." The researchers are trying to figure out why aspens, native to the higher elevations of the region, have been dying. In addition to ecological diversity and the aesthetics of an aspen grove on a quiet mountainside, the trees also affect watersheds. With the decrease in aspens, conifers are encroaching on aspen territory. "There may be significant loss of water resources that could be coming out of these watersheds," said Ron Ryel, a Utah State University researcher on wildland resources....
Multiple use advocates descend on capitol Approximately 100 members of grassroots associations gathered at the Montana State Capitol on Saturday to present Gov. Brian Schweitzer with petitions signed by more than 7,800 Montanans opposed to the 2001 Clinton Roadless Rule and Attorney General Mike McGrath's support of the rule. Joining the group were U.S. Senator Conrad Burns and U.S. Representative Denny Rehberg, Montana Public Service Commissioner Doug Mood, Montana State Senator Jerry O'Neil and Montana GOP Legislative Campaign Coordinator Larry Grinde. Forest-use groups present were: Citizens for Balanced Use, Families for Outdoor Recreation, Montana Trail Vehicle Riders Association, Montana Snowmobile Association, Montana Four Wheel Drive Association, Montanans For Multiple Use Association, Montana Property Rights Association, and the Treasure State Alliance. At the front steps of the Capitol, these groups presented Hal Harper, Governor Schweitzer's representative, with the petitions that stated: We the undersigned wish to voice our opposition to the 2001 Clinton Roadless Rule and Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath's continued support for this rule. We the undersigned furthermore ask Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer not to make any petition to President Bush asking these lands be further studied or preserved as roadless areas for future wilderness. We object: • to having our access to our National Forests restricted; • to the gating and destruction of our forest roads; • to having our National Forests mismanaged and reduced to fire fuel; • to being subjected to arbitrary restrictions concerning our preferred activities while on our National Forests. We are the people who live, work, pay taxes and vote in this state....
Judge: Residents cannot sue USFS over lost houses Bitterroot Valley residents who allege their homes were destroyed by a backburn that got away from firefighters cannot sue the U.S. Forest Service over their losses, a federal judge here has ruled. U. S. District Judge Donald Molloy said the agency and its employees are immune from such lawsuits because they were acting under a “discretionary function” exception of federal law when they set the burn. “Whether the government employees’ actions were wise, foolish or negligent is irrelevant in considering whether the exception applies,” Molloy wrote in his ruling, which is dated Aug. 31. The case stemmed from the massive wildfires that burned tens of thousands of acres in the Bitterroot Valley south of Missoula in 2000. In a lawsuit filed in 2003, more than 100 residents sued the Forest Service, alleging that the damage and destruction to their homes was a direct result of a backburn set by fire crews attempting to slow the advancing wildfire. The homeowners and their insurance companies alleged the firefighters violated their own policies when they lit the Aug. 6 backburn, and should have known there was a strong chance it would endanger lives and property in the area. They claimed the backburn was not authorized, was set without warning area residents and was “highly imprudent.” At least 10 homes were destroyed by the fire....
House approves San Ildefonso Pueblo’s land claim The US House has approved legislation that would settle San Ildefonso Pueblo’s decades-old claim to thousands of acres of ancestral land. The bill was passed earlier by the Senate and now heads to President Bush for approval. The measure authorizes land transactions affecting San Ildefonso and Santa Clara pueblos, Los Alamos County and the Forest Service. The pueblos would be able to add land to their pueblos, and the county would be able to protect its water wells. The settlement will resolve the last remaining claim before the Indian Claims Commission, which was established in 1946....
A decade cools the controversy With the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument entering its second decade, it's time to forget the days of yore - and ore. So says Garfield County Engineer Brian Bremner, who challenged scientists this week to pass on a new way of thinking to the next generation that will manage the 1.9 million-acre preserve in southern Utah. “Extractive industries like coal mining and timber harvesting are the old days," he said, "and science represents the new days." Bremner was one of several speakers to address scientists, land managers and government officials attending a “Learning From the Land” science symposium at Southern Utah University. The Cedar City meeting marks the 10-year anniversary - set for Monday - of the monument. On Sept. 18, 1996, then-President Clinton created the preserve, which the federal Bureau of Land Management oversees. The monument - with its vast, austere and rugged landscapes - set the stage for a contentious decade as border communities fought to preserve a way of life that became more complex on lands managed with more scrutiny by the federal government....
Goshute leader calls N-waste rulings 'thin' The leader of the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians used the words "pretty thin" to describe last week's federal actions that may have been the death knell for a plan to store nuclear waste on his Tooele County reservation. After reviewing decisions by two Interior Department agencies to deny the lease for the Private Fuel Storage consortium, Leon Bear, the disputed chairman of the Goshutes, said the explanations did nothing to justify the potential loss of millions of dollars in future earnings for his small band of about 125 people. "The thing is, I felt that they were kind of skating on thin ice on the issues they brought up," Bear told the Deseret Morning News Monday. "We've met all the conditions of that lease for approval." PFS had planned to move as much as 44,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel to the temporary storage site in Skull Valley about 50 miles from Salt Lake City. The waste would have been stored there until a permanent site becomes available....
Column - Vegas water plan should whet our thirst for answers The lack of water conservation in Las Vegas, where fountains, fake lakes and huge swimming pools are the norm, should make Sin City's effort to grab water from the dry Great Basin an affront to those who treasure the natural world. Why should special places such as Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, the Goshute Range and the Great Salt Lake be potentially sacrificed to accommodate the ugly sprawling mess that Las Vegas has become? And why should a plan to divert as much as 200,000 acre feet of water annually from the Great Basin be fast-tracked when scientists don't know what effect the pumping will have? Does any credible scientist within the Department of Interior believe the fix isn't in when a new agreement requires the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs to withdraw protests filed against this scheme? The agreement is so much horsefeathers. Does anyone really believe that once Vegas gets its hands on the Great Basin water, it will turn off the spigot to preserve wildlife?....
Groups win suit over water flows Former Interior Secretary Gale Norton's decision to let Colorado limit water flows in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park was illegal and "nonsensical," a federal judge ruled Wednesday. U.S. District Court Judge Clarence Brimmer also said the 2003 agreement between Norton and Colorado was "arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion." Brimmer's long-awaited decision was hailed by conservation groups as a victory over Bush administration policies they said ignored science. Gov. Bill Owens and attorneys for the Interior Department hadn't read the decision Wednesday and were unable to comment. In the pact, Norton let Colorado set the year-round minimum flow at 300 cubic feet per second for the Gunnison River within the park. Trout Unlimited, Western Resource Advocates and other conservation groups sued, arguing that 30 years of federal research called for periodic higher flows of 10,000 cfs....
IRS extends tax break for ranchers suffering drought Cattle producers nationwide forced to sell animals because of drought won't have to pay capital gains on their profits for a year after parched conditions end, the Internal Revenue Service has announced. If ranchers replace their animals, their tax liability for sales no longer exists, officials said. Previous legislation gave cattlemen four years — beginning in 2002 — to replace the livestock sold because of drought without recognizing a capital gain. Last week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson extended the provision for an additional year if in the 12 months ending Aug. 31 there was severe, extreme or exceptional drought conditions in a particular area. "Your clock doesn't start ticking until your area recovers enough that it's out of those three categories of drought," National Cattlemen's Beef Association spokesman Joe Schuele said. "This just offers them time to make those (buying) decisions at a time when conditions are better."....
Wyoming recognized as free of brucellosis The federal government declared Wyoming's cattle herds free of brucellosis, meaning costly restrictions placed on the state's producers over the past 2½ years can be eased, state officials said Tuesday. The decision by the U.S. Agriculture Department to declare the state brucellosis-free will be official in the next several days when it is published in the Federal Register, according to Gov. Dave Freduenthal's office. "It is a tribute to the brucellosis task force and the others around the state who worked to make this effort successful," Freudenthal said in a prepared statement. "It also demonstrates the importance of the producers, hunters and Game and Fish in the eastern and western parts of the state working and staying together so that we can retain statewide brucellosis-free status." Brucellosis is a bacterial disease that can cause pregnant bison, cattle and elk to abort their fetuses....
Three Former Chiefs of Natural Resources Conservation Service Praise Introduction of Energy and Conservation Bill Benefitting Farmers Three former chiefs of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) praised the introduction today of the first major agriculture bill introduced prior to the 2007 expiration of the current farm bill because it will help farmers address the nation's energy crisis by boosting funding for renewable energy development on farms, ranches and forest lands. The bipartisan legislation also would provide consumers with greater access to healthy foods and double conservation spending to provide cleaner air, water and wildlife habitat, and help stabilize global warming over the life of the next farm bill. The bill, "The Healthy Farms, Foods and Fuels Act of 2006," is sponsored by U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) and has 26 cosponsors. Among other things, the Healthy Farms, Foods and Fuels Act, will: -- Increase from $200 million to $2 billion annual loan guarantees for renewable energy development on farms. -- Expand programs that provide local, healthy food choices to our school children and dramatically expand coupon programs that allow elderly and low income Americans to shop at farmer's markets. -- Double incentives to $2 billion a year for farmers and ranchers to protect drinking water supplies and make other environmental improvements. -- Provide funding to restore nearly 3 million acres of wetlands. -- Provide funding to protect 6 million acres of farm and ranch land from sprawl....
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
GAO
Endangered Species: Many Factors Affect the Length of Time to Recover Select Species. GAO-06-730, September 6.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-730
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d06730high.pdf
2. Natural Gas Pipeline Safety: Integrity Management Benefits Public Safety, but Consistency of Performance Measures Should Be Improved.
GAO-06-946, September 8.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-946
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d06946high.pdf
3. Natural Gas Pipeline Safety: Risk-Based Standards Should Allow Operators to Better Tailor Reassessments to Pipeline Threats.
GAO-06-945, September 8.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-945
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d06945high.pdf
4. Army Corps of Engineers: Improved Monitoring and Clear Guidance Would Contribute to More Effective Use of Continuing Contracts.
GAO-06-966, September 8.http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-966
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d06966high.pdf
Endangered Species: Many Factors Affect the Length of Time to Recover Select Species. GAO-06-730, September 6.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-730
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d06730high.pdf
2. Natural Gas Pipeline Safety: Integrity Management Benefits Public Safety, but Consistency of Performance Measures Should Be Improved.
GAO-06-946, September 8.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-946
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d06946high.pdf
3. Natural Gas Pipeline Safety: Risk-Based Standards Should Allow Operators to Better Tailor Reassessments to Pipeline Threats.
GAO-06-945, September 8.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-945
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d06945high.pdf
4. Army Corps of Engineers: Improved Monitoring and Clear Guidance Would Contribute to More Effective Use of Continuing Contracts.
GAO-06-966, September 8.http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-966
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d06966high.pdf
GAO
Alaska Native Allotments: Alternatives to Address Conflicts with Utility Rights-of-Way, by Robin M. Nazzaro, director, natural resources and environment, before the House Committee on Resources. GAO-06-1107T, September 13.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-1107T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d061107thigh.pdf
Alaska Native Allotments: Alternatives to Address Conflicts with Utility Rights-of-Way, by Robin M. Nazzaro, director, natural resources and environment, before the House Committee on Resources. GAO-06-1107T, September 13.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-1107T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d061107thigh.pdf
Tenn. health officials alert thousands over rabies at horse show
Tennessee's Department of Health has alerted about 4,200 people who attended a horse show several weeks ago that one of the animals tested positive for rabies, but an official said it is unlikely the disease spread during the show. John Dunn, a medical epidemiologist, said Tuesday letters were sent out Monday to attendees in 34 states, Canada and Germany. The letters say a horse from Waynesville, Mo., became ill during the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration held in Shelbyville from Aug. 23-Sept. 2 and could have spread the disease to people or other horses. However, the chance of rabies spreading to people or other horses is rare, Dunn said. "Rabies can only be contracted through the bite of an infected animal," Dunn said. "There is also a small potential for contraction through a large amount of saliva in a fresh open wound, or in contact with the nose, eyes, or mouth." The letter asks that people contact the department if they believe they had direct contact with the infected horse....
This is an official CDC Health Advisory
Distributed via Health Alert Network
September 9, 2006, 20:44 EDT (08:44 PM EDT) CDCHAN-00248-06-09-09-ADV-N
Horse stabled at Tennessee Walking Horse 2006 National Celebration
Tested Positive for Rabies
The Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) with the assistance of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are notifying the
approximately 150,000 persons who attended the Tennessee Walking Horse
National Celebration in Shelbyville of a confirmed case of rabies in a
horse stabled on the grounds during the event. If persons were bitten or
came in contact with saliva from this horse (described below) from
August 23-31, 2006 while attending the Celebration, they may have been
exposed to rabies and are invited to contact TDH for an assessment.
Rabies is a viral infection that nearly always results in fatal
encephalitis. Humans may be exposed to rabies primarily through the bite
of a rabid animal or when the virus is introduced into fresh open cuts
in the skin or onto mucous membranes such as the eyes, mouth or nose
from the saliva of a rabid animal. Attending an event where a rabid
animal was present, petting a rabid animal or contact with the blood,
urine or feces of a rabid animal does not constitute a risk for
transmission. If a person is exposed to rabies, a series of shots
(post-exposure prophylaxis) is highly effective in preventing the
disease.
Among the approximate 150,000 persons who attended the Tennessee Walking
Horse National Celebration, the number and origin (U.S. states or other
countries) of persons who may have been exposed to this horse are
unknown. TDH is currently working with event organizers and managers to identify additional mechanisms to contact participants and visitors.
The horse that developed rabies was from Waynesville, Missouri. It was a
3-year-old gelding (neutered male horse), buckskin (cream to tan) in
color with a black mane and tail. "Buck" or "Bucky" was described as
"small," 14 hands or 56 inches tall at the withers (i.e., the highest
area of the shoulders at the base of the neck). He was stabled on the
north side of Barn 50 in stall #12, the third from the west end. A
bright blue curtain labeled "4J Land and Cattle Company" covered the
outside porch of the barn.
The potential for contact by the public was very limited when the horse
was in its stall but there may have been opportunity for public contact
when the horse was taken for rides on the Celebration grounds. The horse
was first noted to be ill on August 28. Over the next few days, the
horse developed severe neurological signs and, as a result, was
euthanized.
Persons directly involved in the care of the horse are being assessed
for possible rabies exposure and the need for rabies post-exposure
treatment....
Tennessee's Department of Health has alerted about 4,200 people who attended a horse show several weeks ago that one of the animals tested positive for rabies, but an official said it is unlikely the disease spread during the show. John Dunn, a medical epidemiologist, said Tuesday letters were sent out Monday to attendees in 34 states, Canada and Germany. The letters say a horse from Waynesville, Mo., became ill during the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration held in Shelbyville from Aug. 23-Sept. 2 and could have spread the disease to people or other horses. However, the chance of rabies spreading to people or other horses is rare, Dunn said. "Rabies can only be contracted through the bite of an infected animal," Dunn said. "There is also a small potential for contraction through a large amount of saliva in a fresh open wound, or in contact with the nose, eyes, or mouth." The letter asks that people contact the department if they believe they had direct contact with the infected horse....
This is an official CDC Health Advisory
Distributed via Health Alert Network
September 9, 2006, 20:44 EDT (08:44 PM EDT) CDCHAN-00248-06-09-09-ADV-N
Horse stabled at Tennessee Walking Horse 2006 National Celebration
Tested Positive for Rabies
The Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) with the assistance of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are notifying the
approximately 150,000 persons who attended the Tennessee Walking Horse
National Celebration in Shelbyville of a confirmed case of rabies in a
horse stabled on the grounds during the event. If persons were bitten or
came in contact with saliva from this horse (described below) from
August 23-31, 2006 while attending the Celebration, they may have been
exposed to rabies and are invited to contact TDH for an assessment.
Rabies is a viral infection that nearly always results in fatal
encephalitis. Humans may be exposed to rabies primarily through the bite
of a rabid animal or when the virus is introduced into fresh open cuts
in the skin or onto mucous membranes such as the eyes, mouth or nose
from the saliva of a rabid animal. Attending an event where a rabid
animal was present, petting a rabid animal or contact with the blood,
urine or feces of a rabid animal does not constitute a risk for
transmission. If a person is exposed to rabies, a series of shots
(post-exposure prophylaxis) is highly effective in preventing the
disease.
Among the approximate 150,000 persons who attended the Tennessee Walking
Horse National Celebration, the number and origin (U.S. states or other
countries) of persons who may have been exposed to this horse are
unknown. TDH is currently working with event organizers and managers to identify additional mechanisms to contact participants and visitors.
The horse that developed rabies was from Waynesville, Missouri. It was a
3-year-old gelding (neutered male horse), buckskin (cream to tan) in
color with a black mane and tail. "Buck" or "Bucky" was described as
"small," 14 hands or 56 inches tall at the withers (i.e., the highest
area of the shoulders at the base of the neck). He was stabled on the
north side of Barn 50 in stall #12, the third from the west end. A
bright blue curtain labeled "4J Land and Cattle Company" covered the
outside porch of the barn.
The potential for contact by the public was very limited when the horse
was in its stall but there may have been opportunity for public contact
when the horse was taken for rides on the Celebration grounds. The horse
was first noted to be ill on August 28. Over the next few days, the
horse developed severe neurological signs and, as a result, was
euthanized.
Persons directly involved in the care of the horse are being assessed
for possible rabies exposure and the need for rabies post-exposure
treatment....
NEWS ROUNDUP
Environmentalists, GOP at Odds Over Hunting on Calif. Island A House GOP bid to continue big-game hunting in a national park on a California island is angering environmentalists and parks officials, who say preserving the nonnative deer and elk herds for hunters will further damage the delicate habitat. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) is seeking to maintain the hunting preserve as part of a defense authorization bill, arguing that disabled and paralyzed veterans should be able to hunt there. That would overturn a legal agreement, signed by the National Park Service eight years ago, to eliminate deer and elk from Santa Rosa Island by 2011. Hunter, who came up with the idea while driving down the California coast with a group of Iraq veterans, said it could "provide wonderful outdoor activities for those American veterans who have protected our freedom." The House has adopted the language, but the Senate passed a resolution opposing it. Lawmakers must reconcile if they hope to pass the defense bill before adjourning for the election....
Man-made factors fuel hurricanes, study finds Global warming caused by humans is largely responsible for heating hurricane-forming regions of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, probably increasing the intensity of the storms, scientists reported yesterday. The scientists used 22 computer models to simulate how the world's climate works and to help answer a key question: Are hurricanes becoming more intense because of natural influences, or man-made ones? The scientists, reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said there was an 84 percent chance that human-induced climate change was responsible for most of the ocean warming . Oceans have warmed by about 1 degree in the past century, and natural influences alone could not account for that, they said. Hurricanes draw their strength from warm seawater, and even small changes in temperature can give a storm much more energy, increasing its fury. The findings, if borne out by further research, could mean that hurricanes with the strength of Katrina and Rita may become more common....
Anyone can travel El Camino Real with a click of a mouse ravelers once used oxen to travel the nearly 1,500-mile El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro trail from Mexico City to Santa Fe. Now they can use a mouse. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, as part of its celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Antiquities Act of 1906, has put together a history tour via computer of the Camino Real, a designated national historic trail. The BLM has been celebrating the anniversary all year, and it was the New Mexico BLM's turn "to blow our horn about El Camino Real," said Sarah Schlanger, a spokeswoman for the bureau's Albuquerque office. El Camino Real, the only international trail recognized in the U.S. trail system, was proposed for inclusion in the system in the 1990s, but wasn't designated until 2000. In the interim, scholars with the National Park Service, the University of New Mexico, agencies in Mexico and others worked up a history on the trail, Schlanger said. During its peak as a wagon road through the early 1800s, El Camino Real led settlers north, promoted trade and fostered an exchange of people and ideas that led to the vibrant culture that is the American Southwest, according to the Web site, www.blm.gov/heritage/adventures. Click on the tour link titled "Royal Road of the Interior Lands" on the left side....
Snake Valley water deal: Bull by the horns or plain old bull? Water officials came armed with a deal on the first day of hearings to determine whether Nevada approves a massive groundwater pumping project that could have far-reaching effects on eastern Nevada and parts of western Utah. Just before three weeks of public hearings were scheduled to commence Monday at the Capitol, the Southern Nevada Water Authority and U.S. Interior Department announced the signing of a joint monitoring and mitigation agreement. Water authority officials hailed the agreement as a giant step forward in gaining approval for their project, which seeks to take up to 200,000 acre-feet of water annually out of Nevada's arid eastern valleys. Included is a proposal to withdraw 25,000 acre-feet yearly out of Snake Valley, which straddles the Nevada-Utah state line. The water would then be shipped to Las Vegas via a 200-mile pipeline network. But opponents of the project, who fear the destruction of the region's ecosystem and ranching industry if such large amounts of groundwater are withdrawn, called the agreement an end-run that was ordered from higher up. "We heard months ago that this was coming, and it's a sellout. The Interior Department has lost all credibility," said Baker, Nev., rancher Dean Baker. ''If they let SNWA sign an [agreement] without any teeth, without any science in it, what does that say about how they deal with the rest of us? If they have a grazing issue with us, can we say 'Let it ride' until later? I doubt it.''....
Hearing continues on Las Vegas water-pumping plan Proponents of a $2 billion plan to pipe rural Nevada water to booming Las Vegas continued Tuesday to push for state approval, promising to protect against overpumping that could harm the rural areas. Responding to questions during state hearings into the plan to draw roughly half the water from Spring Valley, near the Nevada-Utah border, the Southern Nevada Water Authority's resource director said SNWA wells would be shut off if overpumping occurred. Ken Albright said that if the water authority's pumping conflicted with existing rights in the valley, options would include relocating wells, letting locals hook up to the SNWA system, "and most importantly we will cease pumping if that becomes a requirement." The Spring Valley plan is a key element of overall plans to get more than 180,000 acre-feet of water a year from rural Nevada....
Elk rancher warns Idaho agents to stop shooting escaped herd The owner of a herd of domesticated elk that escaped near Yellowstone National Park says Idaho Governor Jim Risch had no justification for ordering state game officers to shoot his animals on sight. Rex Rammell is the owner of the Chief Joseph private hunting reserve near Rexburg. He says he's trying to recapture the elk before state agents shoot them all and ruin his business. Rammell says his farm-raised animals are disease-free and are pure-bred Rocky Mountain elk descended from Yellowstone stock. He says if his elk do intermingle with wild herds, they'll help, not hurt, the genetics of the Yellowstone herds. But Idaho Fish and Game officers say they can't take that risk with the state's premier big game resource....
A New Model for Green Living in the American Southwest In the heart of Southern Arizona’s Sky Islands, a new model of residential development focuses as much on planting oak trees and harvesting water as it does on building adobe walls and patios with panoramic views. Three Canyons is a development design that contributes both to the life of the land and the people who live there, according to Conservation Properties developers David Parsons and Denny Hubbell. They envision restoring this onetime cattle ranch to the lush savanna grassland and cienega wetland it was 150 years ago – before the impact of the railroad, woodcutting and overgrazing. Three Canyons is a new development of 198 homes just north of Patagonia, a quintessentially Western town of 1000. Ninety-five percent of the 1760-acre site will remain open space. This land lies within the Sonoita Creek watershed corridor, an area known for its unique biodiversity of plants, animals and migratory birds. The land restoration plan begins with harvesting water, thinning scrub mesquites and planting thousands of oak trees. The developers also are investing in the local community and partnering with Arizona non-profit organizations....
Rule helps ranch protection More Wyoming ranchers and farmers are expressing interest in conservation easements following a recent change in federal tax law. "I'd say the calls have probably tripled," said Glenn Pauley, executive director of the Wyoming Stock Growers Agricultural Land Trust. "And it hasn't really percolated through all of the agriculture community (yet)." President Bush last month signed into law a measure that increases tax incentives for landowners who donate conservation easements. Conservation easements are agreements to restrict development on real estate while allowing the original owner to retain title to the property and other rights of ownership. Previously, federal law allowed conservation easement donors to deduct 30 percent of their adjusted gross income from their taxes for six years. Under the new law, donors can deduct 50 percent for 16 years, and qualifying farmers and ranchers can deduct up to 100 percent. Land trusts and conservationists in Wyoming say the new law will give ranchers and others a way to avoid selling off their lands for subdivisions....
U.S. judge's ruling could end forest user fees A federal magistrate's ruling could end, or scale back the scope of, the $5 daily user fees charged on Mount Lemmon and in Sabino and Madera canyons. The case could set a national precedent, possibly ending fees in other national forests around the country, said the chief Forest Service official for the Mount Lemmon-Sabino Canyon area. It could also mean cutbacks in maintenance and improvements of picnic grounds and campsites, and possible closure of some facilities because the fees generate hundreds of thousands of dollars annually that are plowed into recreation areas, the forest official said. Magistrate Charles Pyle dismissed Forest Service charges last week against a Tucsonan who got $30 tickets twice in the same month for failing to pay fees when parking and hiking on different spots on Mount Lemmon. Pyle ruled that the Forest Service went beyond its congressional authorization when it charged fees for parking to use a trail, for roadside or trailside picnicking, for camping outside developed campgrounds and for roadside parking in general....
Indians say Arizona ski resort desecrates their sacred mountains A dozen Southwestern Indian tribes plan to ask a federal appeals court Thursday to block upgrades to an Arizona ski resort they say already desecrates the mountains they hold sacred. The San Francisco Peaks are said to be the mother of the Navajo, where White Mountain Apache adolescent girls ascend into womanhood in the Sunrise Ceremony. For the Havasupai, the peaks overlooking Flagstaff, are the origin of humans. To the Hopi, they are the point in the physical world defining the tribe. But on the western flank of these peaks, which have names like Humphrey's, Agassiz, Doyle and Fremont, rests what the tribes say is an affront to their religion: the Arizona Snowbowl ski resort. The tribes say the 777-acre resort in the Coconino National Forest desecrates the land and might be cause for the Sept. 11 attacks, the tsunami, recent hurricanes and the Columbia shuttle crash. The tribes want the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to block proposed resort improvements, which include the spraying of machine-generated snow, for fear of more universal ills and further desecration of their land....
Groups file suit over endangered falcon protections A coalition of environmental groups has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, saying the agency's decision this summer to designate the northern aplomado falcon as an experimental population strips the bird of needed protections. The Fish and Wildlife Service decided in July to reintroduce the falcon to its historical home in Chihuahuan desert grasslands of New Mexico and Arizona. As part of the reintroduction rule, the agency classified the birds as a nonessential experimental population designation. That means any birds in the two states will no longer be considered endangered but they will continue to have some protections. For example, it's still illegal to shoot or harass the birds or to take their eggs. The environmental groups contend in their lawsuit filed Monday in federal court that reintroduced animals designed as experimental and nonessential be outside the current range of the species. Because there has been an increase in falcon sightings in New Mexico, they argue the reintroduction rule is illegal....
Proposal cuts murrelet habitat area A federal proposal would slash the critical habitat in Oregon, Washington and California set aside under the Endangered Species Act for the marbled murrelet, a threatened sea bird, by about 95 percent, to 221,692 acres. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday the bird already is protected by other plans such as the Northwest Forest Plan and state and tribal management plans on the 3.37 million acres that would lose the critical habitat designation. It is studying a proposal to delist the bird altogether. Of the land still listed as critical habitat, 53,640 acres would be newly designated, said agency spokeswoman Joan Jewett. She said the proposed changes would not affect areas open to logging. The Audubon Society of Portland, which worked to get the bird listed, said it fears for the marbled murrelet's future....
Endangered frogs find home near Payson Before the Chiricahua leopard frog earned a spot on the federal government's endangered species list in 2002, the amphibians thrived in the streams and ponds of Arizona and New Mexico. But scientists saved the species from extinction. Thursday, biologists released hundreds of adult frogs and tadpoles back into their endemic riparian environments of Tonto National Forest in an area called Gentry Creek near Payson. Before reintroduction into the wild, the frogs received a fungicide treatment to prevent the spread of an amphibian-killing disease called chytridiomycosis. During the three-hour ride from the Valley to Tonto National Forest, the Arizona Game and Fish Department placed the frogs in coolers to prevent their overheating; biologists also placed small aerators in some of the containers that held the tadpoles to keep the water oxygenated....
Feds Identify 279 Species Needing Endangered Species Act Protection The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today issued an updated “candidate notice of review” that recognizes 279 species as candidates for protection as threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. The review lists eight new “candidate species” and also raises the priority status for nine others due to increased threats and/or further population declines. Species are not afforded any protection while on the candidate list. “The Endangered Species Act is one of America’s most successful environmental laws,” said Noah Greenwald, conservation biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “The vast majority of endangered species are recovering and very few have gone extinct. The candidate list, by contrast, has proven to be an extinction trap. At least 24 species have gone extinct while waiting for protection. These 279 species need to be put on the endangered species list as fast as possible. Their lives depend on it.” The Center for Biological Diversity and other groups have filed a lawsuit charging that the Bush administration is using the candidate list as a stall tactic to prevent species from being placed on the endangered list....
Roadless areas worth saving, panel decides A state task force recommended Monday that Gov. Bill Owens ask the federal government to set aside the bulk of the state's 4.1 million acres of roadless areas from most future development. The proposal approved Monday evening by the state roadless-area task force would restrict road construction for gas and mineral exploration, generally preclude logging and preserve large swaths of natural areas from most motorized vehicles. The long-awaited task-force recommendation, the latest step in a lengthy process to solve one of the nation's longest-running land- preservation conflicts, is part of a state-by-state effort to determine which plots of federal lands should be left free of a growing lattice of roads....
Welcome to the conflicted West “Welcome to the New Old West” reads the sign outside Pahrump, Nev., as you drive from Death Valley Junction along the California border. Given the meaning of these two terms, it’s a funny juxtaposition. The Old West has always meant open spaces, riding the range, cowboys and gunfire, freedom in the early 20th century sense of the word -- to do what you want, where and when you want -- without pesky regulations. This is the West of an untapped world of promise. The New West means something different. Service and leisure have mostly replaced extraction and herds, cities dominate, and people wearing cowboy hats sit in traffic in SUVs, with glorious sunsets behind the nearby mountains that most never visit. This West builds four things: casinos, subdivisions, theme parks and prisons. It has glitter and glitz, leisure and at least a measure of security. Yet we pine for the old West as we live in the new. This is the terrible paradox of the West today. Our collective desire has created a split between where people tend to settle and the land that surrounds them. The West is the most densely urban part of the country; it is also home to the most glorious and spectacular open spaces available in the Lower 48. The two abut one another, but they rarely intersect....
Construction Stirs Debate on Effects on ‘Perfect Wave’ A plan to build a toll road in northern San Diego County has the worldwide surfing community concerned that the project could ruin the iconic Trestles surf break. This week, Trestles is the host of the annual Boost Mobile Pro of Surf contest. Featuring elite surfers from the Association of Surfing Professionals World Championship Tour, the contest is the only event of its caliber in the continental United States. “The world tour only goes to the best waves in the world,” said Alex Wilson, associate editor at Surfer Magazine. “Trestles is one of them. It’s a gem. It’s a perfect wave.” Not overly large and relatively easy to ride, the waves are long and fast, and they peel with well-shaped shoulders ideal for aerials and other maneuvers. Trestles is said to make average surfers seem sublime, and superior surfers colossal. The Surfrider Foundation, an international grass-roots coastal conservancy, insists that a planned 16-mile toll road would downgrade Trestles. The foundation has pledged to fight the road’s construction and has assembled support from surfing and other sources, including a $30,000 donation from the rock band Pearl Jam....
Pew 'Farm Animal' Commission Tainted by Vegetarian Bias, Says Consumer Group This morning the $4.5 billon Pew Charitable Trusts rolled out a stealth campaign against meat production and consumption. The two-year National Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production (NCIFAP), stacked with opponents of animal agriculture and advocates of strict vegetarianism, threatens to attack farmers and demonize the meat on America's dinner tables. The academic sponsor of this Pew project is Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health, which has already demonstrated an institutional bias against meat in general. The Bloomberg School also promotes a "Meatless Mondays" campaign in cooperation with New York philanthropist Helaine Lerner -- whose considerable fortune also subsidizes the anti-meat "Meatrix" internet videos. David Martosko, Director of Research at the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom, said: "This Pew-funded panel is a Trojan horse for organized activists who want to radically change the way meat is produced or eliminate it entirely. If you wanted to assemble a kangaroo court to rubber-stamp the opinion that modern meat production is the root of all evil, you could hardly do better than this group. The only thing missing is PETA."....
3 animal-welfare activists sent to U.S. prison for inciting threats against company Three animal-rights activists convicted of using their Web site to incite threats and harassment against a company that tests products on animals received prison sentences ranging from four to six years Tuesday. They were also ordered to pay a total of $1 million in restitution to the company and people they harassed. All three activists said they planned to appeal their convictions and requested they receive vegan meals while in prison. Three other members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty are awaiting sentencing within the next two weeks. The six activists and their organization were convicted in March of using a Web site to incite threats, harassment and vandalism against Huntingdon Life Sciences, a company that tests drugs and household products on animals....
A National Call to Action by the Women of Professional Barrel Racing The Women's Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA) today announced that it would actively defend the rights of it women members and their association against the hostile actions taken by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). The PRCA board of directors voted on August 16th to sever its partnership of 60 years, and form a competing subsidiary. "Throughout the years we allowed the PRCA to utilize our efforts, our women athletes and our association to further the rodeo brand and reap the economic rewards. Now, without notice or further negotiation, they have decided to toss the organization aside and actively block our business opportunities," said Jymmy Kay Davis, President of the WPRA. The abrupt decision had been preceded by months of failed attempts by the WPRA to identify and rectify the concerns of the PRCA. "We were under the impression that the communication was open but never received a defined proposal or the accurate financial details to justify their demands," stated Davis. The WPRA, one of the oldest women sports organizations, has nearly 2000 members and sanctions over 600 barrel racings across the nation....
An Open Letter To All Members From The Board Of Directors Your Board of Directors met in Las Vegas on August 21-23, 2006. Although there were a number of items on the agenda, including rule proposals for the 2007 season, the vast majority of the meeting was spent on our current situation with the PRCA. For those who have not been following our negotiations, here is a recap of recent events. In August of 2005 the PRCA Board of Directors voted to impose a $200 competition fee upon all WPRA members who compete at rodeos sanctioned by the PRCA. The WPRA Board felt this fee would create an undue hardship upon its members, severely limiting how many would be able to retain their WPRA membership and continue to compete in pro rodeos. Therefore they felt they had no choice but to reject this proposal. The WPRA Board countered with a proposal of its own. This proposal offered a $100,000 payment to the PRCA for the 2006 season in exchange for the PRCA's agreement that any barrel race held in conjunction with a PRCA rodeo must be WPRA sanctioned unless otherwise approved by our Board. The proposal also offered that the WPRA would assume responsibility for all sponsorship negotiation, as this was one of the areas where the PRCA had concerns that it was paying for our members. This included taking care of our own members in the Patch Program. The offer also included a stipulation that the WPRA would retain the television and media rights and that the PRCA would have no obligation to televise the barrel race at its sanctioned rodeos....
Environmentalists, GOP at Odds Over Hunting on Calif. Island A House GOP bid to continue big-game hunting in a national park on a California island is angering environmentalists and parks officials, who say preserving the nonnative deer and elk herds for hunters will further damage the delicate habitat. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) is seeking to maintain the hunting preserve as part of a defense authorization bill, arguing that disabled and paralyzed veterans should be able to hunt there. That would overturn a legal agreement, signed by the National Park Service eight years ago, to eliminate deer and elk from Santa Rosa Island by 2011. Hunter, who came up with the idea while driving down the California coast with a group of Iraq veterans, said it could "provide wonderful outdoor activities for those American veterans who have protected our freedom." The House has adopted the language, but the Senate passed a resolution opposing it. Lawmakers must reconcile if they hope to pass the defense bill before adjourning for the election....
Man-made factors fuel hurricanes, study finds Global warming caused by humans is largely responsible for heating hurricane-forming regions of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, probably increasing the intensity of the storms, scientists reported yesterday. The scientists used 22 computer models to simulate how the world's climate works and to help answer a key question: Are hurricanes becoming more intense because of natural influences, or man-made ones? The scientists, reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said there was an 84 percent chance that human-induced climate change was responsible for most of the ocean warming . Oceans have warmed by about 1 degree in the past century, and natural influences alone could not account for that, they said. Hurricanes draw their strength from warm seawater, and even small changes in temperature can give a storm much more energy, increasing its fury. The findings, if borne out by further research, could mean that hurricanes with the strength of Katrina and Rita may become more common....
Anyone can travel El Camino Real with a click of a mouse ravelers once used oxen to travel the nearly 1,500-mile El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro trail from Mexico City to Santa Fe. Now they can use a mouse. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, as part of its celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Antiquities Act of 1906, has put together a history tour via computer of the Camino Real, a designated national historic trail. The BLM has been celebrating the anniversary all year, and it was the New Mexico BLM's turn "to blow our horn about El Camino Real," said Sarah Schlanger, a spokeswoman for the bureau's Albuquerque office. El Camino Real, the only international trail recognized in the U.S. trail system, was proposed for inclusion in the system in the 1990s, but wasn't designated until 2000. In the interim, scholars with the National Park Service, the University of New Mexico, agencies in Mexico and others worked up a history on the trail, Schlanger said. During its peak as a wagon road through the early 1800s, El Camino Real led settlers north, promoted trade and fostered an exchange of people and ideas that led to the vibrant culture that is the American Southwest, according to the Web site, www.blm.gov/heritage/adventures. Click on the tour link titled "Royal Road of the Interior Lands" on the left side....
Snake Valley water deal: Bull by the horns or plain old bull? Water officials came armed with a deal on the first day of hearings to determine whether Nevada approves a massive groundwater pumping project that could have far-reaching effects on eastern Nevada and parts of western Utah. Just before three weeks of public hearings were scheduled to commence Monday at the Capitol, the Southern Nevada Water Authority and U.S. Interior Department announced the signing of a joint monitoring and mitigation agreement. Water authority officials hailed the agreement as a giant step forward in gaining approval for their project, which seeks to take up to 200,000 acre-feet of water annually out of Nevada's arid eastern valleys. Included is a proposal to withdraw 25,000 acre-feet yearly out of Snake Valley, which straddles the Nevada-Utah state line. The water would then be shipped to Las Vegas via a 200-mile pipeline network. But opponents of the project, who fear the destruction of the region's ecosystem and ranching industry if such large amounts of groundwater are withdrawn, called the agreement an end-run that was ordered from higher up. "We heard months ago that this was coming, and it's a sellout. The Interior Department has lost all credibility," said Baker, Nev., rancher Dean Baker. ''If they let SNWA sign an [agreement] without any teeth, without any science in it, what does that say about how they deal with the rest of us? If they have a grazing issue with us, can we say 'Let it ride' until later? I doubt it.''....
Hearing continues on Las Vegas water-pumping plan Proponents of a $2 billion plan to pipe rural Nevada water to booming Las Vegas continued Tuesday to push for state approval, promising to protect against overpumping that could harm the rural areas. Responding to questions during state hearings into the plan to draw roughly half the water from Spring Valley, near the Nevada-Utah border, the Southern Nevada Water Authority's resource director said SNWA wells would be shut off if overpumping occurred. Ken Albright said that if the water authority's pumping conflicted with existing rights in the valley, options would include relocating wells, letting locals hook up to the SNWA system, "and most importantly we will cease pumping if that becomes a requirement." The Spring Valley plan is a key element of overall plans to get more than 180,000 acre-feet of water a year from rural Nevada....
Elk rancher warns Idaho agents to stop shooting escaped herd The owner of a herd of domesticated elk that escaped near Yellowstone National Park says Idaho Governor Jim Risch had no justification for ordering state game officers to shoot his animals on sight. Rex Rammell is the owner of the Chief Joseph private hunting reserve near Rexburg. He says he's trying to recapture the elk before state agents shoot them all and ruin his business. Rammell says his farm-raised animals are disease-free and are pure-bred Rocky Mountain elk descended from Yellowstone stock. He says if his elk do intermingle with wild herds, they'll help, not hurt, the genetics of the Yellowstone herds. But Idaho Fish and Game officers say they can't take that risk with the state's premier big game resource....
A New Model for Green Living in the American Southwest In the heart of Southern Arizona’s Sky Islands, a new model of residential development focuses as much on planting oak trees and harvesting water as it does on building adobe walls and patios with panoramic views. Three Canyons is a development design that contributes both to the life of the land and the people who live there, according to Conservation Properties developers David Parsons and Denny Hubbell. They envision restoring this onetime cattle ranch to the lush savanna grassland and cienega wetland it was 150 years ago – before the impact of the railroad, woodcutting and overgrazing. Three Canyons is a new development of 198 homes just north of Patagonia, a quintessentially Western town of 1000. Ninety-five percent of the 1760-acre site will remain open space. This land lies within the Sonoita Creek watershed corridor, an area known for its unique biodiversity of plants, animals and migratory birds. The land restoration plan begins with harvesting water, thinning scrub mesquites and planting thousands of oak trees. The developers also are investing in the local community and partnering with Arizona non-profit organizations....
Rule helps ranch protection More Wyoming ranchers and farmers are expressing interest in conservation easements following a recent change in federal tax law. "I'd say the calls have probably tripled," said Glenn Pauley, executive director of the Wyoming Stock Growers Agricultural Land Trust. "And it hasn't really percolated through all of the agriculture community (yet)." President Bush last month signed into law a measure that increases tax incentives for landowners who donate conservation easements. Conservation easements are agreements to restrict development on real estate while allowing the original owner to retain title to the property and other rights of ownership. Previously, federal law allowed conservation easement donors to deduct 30 percent of their adjusted gross income from their taxes for six years. Under the new law, donors can deduct 50 percent for 16 years, and qualifying farmers and ranchers can deduct up to 100 percent. Land trusts and conservationists in Wyoming say the new law will give ranchers and others a way to avoid selling off their lands for subdivisions....
U.S. judge's ruling could end forest user fees A federal magistrate's ruling could end, or scale back the scope of, the $5 daily user fees charged on Mount Lemmon and in Sabino and Madera canyons. The case could set a national precedent, possibly ending fees in other national forests around the country, said the chief Forest Service official for the Mount Lemmon-Sabino Canyon area. It could also mean cutbacks in maintenance and improvements of picnic grounds and campsites, and possible closure of some facilities because the fees generate hundreds of thousands of dollars annually that are plowed into recreation areas, the forest official said. Magistrate Charles Pyle dismissed Forest Service charges last week against a Tucsonan who got $30 tickets twice in the same month for failing to pay fees when parking and hiking on different spots on Mount Lemmon. Pyle ruled that the Forest Service went beyond its congressional authorization when it charged fees for parking to use a trail, for roadside or trailside picnicking, for camping outside developed campgrounds and for roadside parking in general....
Indians say Arizona ski resort desecrates their sacred mountains A dozen Southwestern Indian tribes plan to ask a federal appeals court Thursday to block upgrades to an Arizona ski resort they say already desecrates the mountains they hold sacred. The San Francisco Peaks are said to be the mother of the Navajo, where White Mountain Apache adolescent girls ascend into womanhood in the Sunrise Ceremony. For the Havasupai, the peaks overlooking Flagstaff, are the origin of humans. To the Hopi, they are the point in the physical world defining the tribe. But on the western flank of these peaks, which have names like Humphrey's, Agassiz, Doyle and Fremont, rests what the tribes say is an affront to their religion: the Arizona Snowbowl ski resort. The tribes say the 777-acre resort in the Coconino National Forest desecrates the land and might be cause for the Sept. 11 attacks, the tsunami, recent hurricanes and the Columbia shuttle crash. The tribes want the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to block proposed resort improvements, which include the spraying of machine-generated snow, for fear of more universal ills and further desecration of their land....
Groups file suit over endangered falcon protections A coalition of environmental groups has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, saying the agency's decision this summer to designate the northern aplomado falcon as an experimental population strips the bird of needed protections. The Fish and Wildlife Service decided in July to reintroduce the falcon to its historical home in Chihuahuan desert grasslands of New Mexico and Arizona. As part of the reintroduction rule, the agency classified the birds as a nonessential experimental population designation. That means any birds in the two states will no longer be considered endangered but they will continue to have some protections. For example, it's still illegal to shoot or harass the birds or to take their eggs. The environmental groups contend in their lawsuit filed Monday in federal court that reintroduced animals designed as experimental and nonessential be outside the current range of the species. Because there has been an increase in falcon sightings in New Mexico, they argue the reintroduction rule is illegal....
Proposal cuts murrelet habitat area A federal proposal would slash the critical habitat in Oregon, Washington and California set aside under the Endangered Species Act for the marbled murrelet, a threatened sea bird, by about 95 percent, to 221,692 acres. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday the bird already is protected by other plans such as the Northwest Forest Plan and state and tribal management plans on the 3.37 million acres that would lose the critical habitat designation. It is studying a proposal to delist the bird altogether. Of the land still listed as critical habitat, 53,640 acres would be newly designated, said agency spokeswoman Joan Jewett. She said the proposed changes would not affect areas open to logging. The Audubon Society of Portland, which worked to get the bird listed, said it fears for the marbled murrelet's future....
Endangered frogs find home near Payson Before the Chiricahua leopard frog earned a spot on the federal government's endangered species list in 2002, the amphibians thrived in the streams and ponds of Arizona and New Mexico. But scientists saved the species from extinction. Thursday, biologists released hundreds of adult frogs and tadpoles back into their endemic riparian environments of Tonto National Forest in an area called Gentry Creek near Payson. Before reintroduction into the wild, the frogs received a fungicide treatment to prevent the spread of an amphibian-killing disease called chytridiomycosis. During the three-hour ride from the Valley to Tonto National Forest, the Arizona Game and Fish Department placed the frogs in coolers to prevent their overheating; biologists also placed small aerators in some of the containers that held the tadpoles to keep the water oxygenated....
Feds Identify 279 Species Needing Endangered Species Act Protection The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today issued an updated “candidate notice of review” that recognizes 279 species as candidates for protection as threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. The review lists eight new “candidate species” and also raises the priority status for nine others due to increased threats and/or further population declines. Species are not afforded any protection while on the candidate list. “The Endangered Species Act is one of America’s most successful environmental laws,” said Noah Greenwald, conservation biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “The vast majority of endangered species are recovering and very few have gone extinct. The candidate list, by contrast, has proven to be an extinction trap. At least 24 species have gone extinct while waiting for protection. These 279 species need to be put on the endangered species list as fast as possible. Their lives depend on it.” The Center for Biological Diversity and other groups have filed a lawsuit charging that the Bush administration is using the candidate list as a stall tactic to prevent species from being placed on the endangered list....
Roadless areas worth saving, panel decides A state task force recommended Monday that Gov. Bill Owens ask the federal government to set aside the bulk of the state's 4.1 million acres of roadless areas from most future development. The proposal approved Monday evening by the state roadless-area task force would restrict road construction for gas and mineral exploration, generally preclude logging and preserve large swaths of natural areas from most motorized vehicles. The long-awaited task-force recommendation, the latest step in a lengthy process to solve one of the nation's longest-running land- preservation conflicts, is part of a state-by-state effort to determine which plots of federal lands should be left free of a growing lattice of roads....
Welcome to the conflicted West “Welcome to the New Old West” reads the sign outside Pahrump, Nev., as you drive from Death Valley Junction along the California border. Given the meaning of these two terms, it’s a funny juxtaposition. The Old West has always meant open spaces, riding the range, cowboys and gunfire, freedom in the early 20th century sense of the word -- to do what you want, where and when you want -- without pesky regulations. This is the West of an untapped world of promise. The New West means something different. Service and leisure have mostly replaced extraction and herds, cities dominate, and people wearing cowboy hats sit in traffic in SUVs, with glorious sunsets behind the nearby mountains that most never visit. This West builds four things: casinos, subdivisions, theme parks and prisons. It has glitter and glitz, leisure and at least a measure of security. Yet we pine for the old West as we live in the new. This is the terrible paradox of the West today. Our collective desire has created a split between where people tend to settle and the land that surrounds them. The West is the most densely urban part of the country; it is also home to the most glorious and spectacular open spaces available in the Lower 48. The two abut one another, but they rarely intersect....
Construction Stirs Debate on Effects on ‘Perfect Wave’ A plan to build a toll road in northern San Diego County has the worldwide surfing community concerned that the project could ruin the iconic Trestles surf break. This week, Trestles is the host of the annual Boost Mobile Pro of Surf contest. Featuring elite surfers from the Association of Surfing Professionals World Championship Tour, the contest is the only event of its caliber in the continental United States. “The world tour only goes to the best waves in the world,” said Alex Wilson, associate editor at Surfer Magazine. “Trestles is one of them. It’s a gem. It’s a perfect wave.” Not overly large and relatively easy to ride, the waves are long and fast, and they peel with well-shaped shoulders ideal for aerials and other maneuvers. Trestles is said to make average surfers seem sublime, and superior surfers colossal. The Surfrider Foundation, an international grass-roots coastal conservancy, insists that a planned 16-mile toll road would downgrade Trestles. The foundation has pledged to fight the road’s construction and has assembled support from surfing and other sources, including a $30,000 donation from the rock band Pearl Jam....
Pew 'Farm Animal' Commission Tainted by Vegetarian Bias, Says Consumer Group This morning the $4.5 billon Pew Charitable Trusts rolled out a stealth campaign against meat production and consumption. The two-year National Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production (NCIFAP), stacked with opponents of animal agriculture and advocates of strict vegetarianism, threatens to attack farmers and demonize the meat on America's dinner tables. The academic sponsor of this Pew project is Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health, which has already demonstrated an institutional bias against meat in general. The Bloomberg School also promotes a "Meatless Mondays" campaign in cooperation with New York philanthropist Helaine Lerner -- whose considerable fortune also subsidizes the anti-meat "Meatrix" internet videos. David Martosko, Director of Research at the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom, said: "This Pew-funded panel is a Trojan horse for organized activists who want to radically change the way meat is produced or eliminate it entirely. If you wanted to assemble a kangaroo court to rubber-stamp the opinion that modern meat production is the root of all evil, you could hardly do better than this group. The only thing missing is PETA."....
3 animal-welfare activists sent to U.S. prison for inciting threats against company Three animal-rights activists convicted of using their Web site to incite threats and harassment against a company that tests products on animals received prison sentences ranging from four to six years Tuesday. They were also ordered to pay a total of $1 million in restitution to the company and people they harassed. All three activists said they planned to appeal their convictions and requested they receive vegan meals while in prison. Three other members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty are awaiting sentencing within the next two weeks. The six activists and their organization were convicted in March of using a Web site to incite threats, harassment and vandalism against Huntingdon Life Sciences, a company that tests drugs and household products on animals....
A National Call to Action by the Women of Professional Barrel Racing The Women's Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA) today announced that it would actively defend the rights of it women members and their association against the hostile actions taken by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). The PRCA board of directors voted on August 16th to sever its partnership of 60 years, and form a competing subsidiary. "Throughout the years we allowed the PRCA to utilize our efforts, our women athletes and our association to further the rodeo brand and reap the economic rewards. Now, without notice or further negotiation, they have decided to toss the organization aside and actively block our business opportunities," said Jymmy Kay Davis, President of the WPRA. The abrupt decision had been preceded by months of failed attempts by the WPRA to identify and rectify the concerns of the PRCA. "We were under the impression that the communication was open but never received a defined proposal or the accurate financial details to justify their demands," stated Davis. The WPRA, one of the oldest women sports organizations, has nearly 2000 members and sanctions over 600 barrel racings across the nation....
An Open Letter To All Members From The Board Of Directors Your Board of Directors met in Las Vegas on August 21-23, 2006. Although there were a number of items on the agenda, including rule proposals for the 2007 season, the vast majority of the meeting was spent on our current situation with the PRCA. For those who have not been following our negotiations, here is a recap of recent events. In August of 2005 the PRCA Board of Directors voted to impose a $200 competition fee upon all WPRA members who compete at rodeos sanctioned by the PRCA. The WPRA Board felt this fee would create an undue hardship upon its members, severely limiting how many would be able to retain their WPRA membership and continue to compete in pro rodeos. Therefore they felt they had no choice but to reject this proposal. The WPRA Board countered with a proposal of its own. This proposal offered a $100,000 payment to the PRCA for the 2006 season in exchange for the PRCA's agreement that any barrel race held in conjunction with a PRCA rodeo must be WPRA sanctioned unless otherwise approved by our Board. The proposal also offered that the WPRA would assume responsibility for all sponsorship negotiation, as this was one of the areas where the PRCA had concerns that it was paying for our members. This included taking care of our own members in the Patch Program. The offer also included a stipulation that the WPRA would retain the television and media rights and that the PRCA would have no obligation to televise the barrel race at its sanctioned rodeos....
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Five Premises Under VS Quarantine in Wyoming
The USDA has reported the detection of vesicular stomatitis (VS) in nine horses on five premises in eastern Wyoming. Vesicular stomatitis, which normally moves up from the Southwest along waterways, has not appeared elsewhere in the country this year. This has lead researchers to believe VS might have overwintered in Wyoming, and they're trying to figure out how. Vesicular stomatitis is a viral disease that primarily affects horses, cattle, and swine, but it can also affect sheep and goats. The disease causes blister-like lesions in the mouth and on the dental pad, tongue, lips, nostrils, hooves, prepuce, and teats of livestock. When the blisters break, they can leave raw, painful areas that can precipitate lameness and reluctance to eat. Animals with VS should be isolated from other livestock to ensure that troughs and feed buckets are not shared. Affected farms are encouraged to increase their insect control measures because biting flies such as Culicoides midges might be responsible for carrying the disease. The two affected counties--Converse and Natrona--border one another, and the affected premises (one in Converse and four in Natrona) are situated near waterways. Donal O'Toole, MVB, MRCVS, PhD, Dipl. ECVP, FRCPath, director of the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory and head of the Department of Veterinary Sciences at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, said VS typically moves up out of the southwestern United States and appears in other states before springing up in Wyoming. This year there was no warning. "The virus isolate from the first horse to come up positive in Natrona this year has been compared by the USDA to isolates from from Wyoming and Montana last year," said O'Toole. "Although I don't know the specific details, I understand it is a close match. The inference is that vesicular stomatitis virus somehow managed to overwinter in Wyoming in 2005-06. "This is an interesting situation since in the past we've always assumed this disease comes out of Central America or Mexico and moves north in big jumps we don't understand," he added. "The similarity of the current isolate suggests that some years the virus can hang around in the U.S. and pop up the following year."....
Crows eyed in war against West Nile virus
Where there are communal crow roosts, look for the West Nile virus, say scientists at the University of California, Davis. Corvids, including American crows, yellow-billed magpies, western scrub-jays and other members of the Corvidae family, serve as the primary reservoirs or incubators for the mosquito-borne virus, according to research entomologist William Reisen of the Center for Vectorborne Diseases at UC Davis. "Corvid surveillance is crucial to stopping the transmission of the virus," he says. September is a crucial month in the war against the virus, which usually peaks in late August and September and ends in October. "Communal crow roosts help drive the West Nile virus into the Culex (mosquito) populations -- that's why it's so important for people to find and report dead birds," says Mr. Reisen, a professor with the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. "Crows are good hosts for mosquitoes. There's an amazing amount of virus in the bloodstream of infected crows, sometimes as much as 10 billion virus particles in one millimeter of blood. They're like a big sack of virus." "We're investigating how the distribution of host-seeking mosquitoes and infected corvids intersect in time and space to effectively amplify the West Nile virus in an urban California landscape," he says. "We're studying how landscape features, mosquito abundance patterns and corvid roosts affect the distribution and abundance of West Nile virus in Davis." Infected crows usually die very quickly, says Mr. Reisen, who's seen crows in Southern California literally "fall out of the sky" during a WNV epidemic....
The USDA has reported the detection of vesicular stomatitis (VS) in nine horses on five premises in eastern Wyoming. Vesicular stomatitis, which normally moves up from the Southwest along waterways, has not appeared elsewhere in the country this year. This has lead researchers to believe VS might have overwintered in Wyoming, and they're trying to figure out how. Vesicular stomatitis is a viral disease that primarily affects horses, cattle, and swine, but it can also affect sheep and goats. The disease causes blister-like lesions in the mouth and on the dental pad, tongue, lips, nostrils, hooves, prepuce, and teats of livestock. When the blisters break, they can leave raw, painful areas that can precipitate lameness and reluctance to eat. Animals with VS should be isolated from other livestock to ensure that troughs and feed buckets are not shared. Affected farms are encouraged to increase their insect control measures because biting flies such as Culicoides midges might be responsible for carrying the disease. The two affected counties--Converse and Natrona--border one another, and the affected premises (one in Converse and four in Natrona) are situated near waterways. Donal O'Toole, MVB, MRCVS, PhD, Dipl. ECVP, FRCPath, director of the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory and head of the Department of Veterinary Sciences at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, said VS typically moves up out of the southwestern United States and appears in other states before springing up in Wyoming. This year there was no warning. "The virus isolate from the first horse to come up positive in Natrona this year has been compared by the USDA to isolates from from Wyoming and Montana last year," said O'Toole. "Although I don't know the specific details, I understand it is a close match. The inference is that vesicular stomatitis virus somehow managed to overwinter in Wyoming in 2005-06. "This is an interesting situation since in the past we've always assumed this disease comes out of Central America or Mexico and moves north in big jumps we don't understand," he added. "The similarity of the current isolate suggests that some years the virus can hang around in the U.S. and pop up the following year."....
Crows eyed in war against West Nile virus
Where there are communal crow roosts, look for the West Nile virus, say scientists at the University of California, Davis. Corvids, including American crows, yellow-billed magpies, western scrub-jays and other members of the Corvidae family, serve as the primary reservoirs or incubators for the mosquito-borne virus, according to research entomologist William Reisen of the Center for Vectorborne Diseases at UC Davis. "Corvid surveillance is crucial to stopping the transmission of the virus," he says. September is a crucial month in the war against the virus, which usually peaks in late August and September and ends in October. "Communal crow roosts help drive the West Nile virus into the Culex (mosquito) populations -- that's why it's so important for people to find and report dead birds," says Mr. Reisen, a professor with the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. "Crows are good hosts for mosquitoes. There's an amazing amount of virus in the bloodstream of infected crows, sometimes as much as 10 billion virus particles in one millimeter of blood. They're like a big sack of virus." "We're investigating how the distribution of host-seeking mosquitoes and infected corvids intersect in time and space to effectively amplify the West Nile virus in an urban California landscape," he says. "We're studying how landscape features, mosquito abundance patterns and corvid roosts affect the distribution and abundance of West Nile virus in Davis." Infected crows usually die very quickly, says Mr. Reisen, who's seen crows in Southern California literally "fall out of the sky" during a WNV epidemic....
House passes North American Wetlands Conservation Act
The U.S. House of Representatives today passed H.R. 5539, which reauthorizes the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA). NAWCA, first enacted in 1989, has become one of the most popular and effective conservation programs. Since the first wetland grant was awarded 15 years ago, more than 1,500 conservation projects have been funded involving more than 3,200 partners. As a result, more than 23 million acres of wetlands and associated habitat has been protected, restored or enhanced in the United States, Canada and Mexico. “Wetlands are critical to the health of our environment, thousands of wild species and human safety,” Resources Chairman Richard W. Pombo (R-Calif.) said. “The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina reminded us of the importance of wetlands, which act as horizontal levees that protect American communities, private property and families from the unpredictable whims of nature.” Wetlands are among the world’s most productive environments. Without these wetlands and coastal barriers, the impact of last year’s hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico would have been far worse in terms of human life, wildlife habitat and the destruction of private property. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, for every 2.7 miles a hurricane travels across marshes and wetlands, the storm surge is reduced by one foot....
The U.S. House of Representatives today passed H.R. 5539, which reauthorizes the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA). NAWCA, first enacted in 1989, has become one of the most popular and effective conservation programs. Since the first wetland grant was awarded 15 years ago, more than 1,500 conservation projects have been funded involving more than 3,200 partners. As a result, more than 23 million acres of wetlands and associated habitat has been protected, restored or enhanced in the United States, Canada and Mexico. “Wetlands are critical to the health of our environment, thousands of wild species and human safety,” Resources Chairman Richard W. Pombo (R-Calif.) said. “The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina reminded us of the importance of wetlands, which act as horizontal levees that protect American communities, private property and families from the unpredictable whims of nature.” Wetlands are among the world’s most productive environments. Without these wetlands and coastal barriers, the impact of last year’s hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico would have been far worse in terms of human life, wildlife habitat and the destruction of private property. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, for every 2.7 miles a hurricane travels across marshes and wetlands, the storm surge is reduced by one foot....
NEWS ROUNDUP
Surprise Development in Nevada Water Fight A big breakthough for Southern Nevada's plan to pipe water in from rural Nevada. The federal government announced it is dropping all opposition to the plan. The Monday announcement from the federal government came as hearings began in Carson City on the pipeline plan. The state water engineer is holding the hearings to decide whether to allow Southern Nevada to tap groundwater basins hundreds of miles to the north. At the beginning of the hearings, the Department of the Interior announced four federal agencies were dropping protests. They include Fish and Wildlife, the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Indian Affairs. In exchange, the Southern Nevada Water Authority has agreed to a comprehensive monitoring program. Opponents of the plan gathered outside of the hearings to protest what they are calling a "water theft" or a "water grab." Ranchers from rural White Pine County saying they fear for their way of life....
Outdoors group snubs southern Utah bill The Washington County Growth and Conservation Act of 2006 got a thumbs down from the Outdoor Industry Association this week. "Our public policy committee voted unanimously last week that we can't support the bill in its current form," said Amy Roberts, the association's director of government affairs. "Our main concern is the sell off of public lands and what we see as an unbalanced approach to wilderness." Washington County Commissioner Alan Gardner is in Washington, D.C., this week to testify before Congress about the bill, which is generating discussion around the nation. "If this bill becomes law, wilderness will lose absolutely no land," Gardner said. "There is nothing on the table for sale on the west side of the county. If it doesn't become law, we will lose the National Conservation Area, the off-road vehicle trail and protection for plants and so forth." The proposed legislation is slated to come before the House Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health on Thursday. Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, and Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, are sponsors of the bill....
Column - Bush’s “New Environmentalism:” What can we expect? Cooperative Conservation became an Executive Order August 26, 2004. Oh, you didn’t hear? The fanfare then was a whisper, but now it’s time to notice. Leaders of federal agencies responsible for the environment are coming to the public, holding “Listening Sessions” around the country. They’re inviting us to answer specific questions. Leaders will take responses back to Washington in the spirit of “cooperative conservation.” They say. Sounding sublime in this era of too many conflicts, some objectives may be genuine. But given the Bush Administration’s record for health, safety and environmental abuses, given that sites chosen for meetings aren’t exactly what you’d call cross-sections of the nation’s political leanings, given the national debt and an additional 13 percent 2007 budget cut to environmental protections, a cautionary, informed approach to this endeavor would seem prudent. Cooperative Conservation has been coined President Bush’s “New Environmentalism,” the honed down version of former Secretary of Interior Gale Norton’s public relations mantra, her Four C’s Credo: communication, consultation, and cooperation in service of conservation. In short, for conservation, have a conversation. An excellent goal, but define “conservation.”....
Scientists watching volcanic bulge on South Sister For a decade or so, a volcanic bulge has been pushing up over 150 square miles near the South Sister at a rate of perhaps an inch per year. Hikers and horse-riders cross it on the Pacific Crest Trail and may see sturdy metallic tripod topped by a white disk. Wires lead to a solar panel. A sign says "Volcano Monitoring Equipment: Do Not Disturb." Here, magma has pushed up the ground, which has been rising an inch or so per year since about 1997, a rise invisible to the naked eye. It began to slow last year, but scientists still watch the area, which has some of the more active magma in the Cascades. The bulge near the 10,358-foot mountain is the only rising ground along the Cascade Range, said Dan Dzurisin, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Cascade Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Wash. "What we think is there is a place where magma is slowly rising from deeper in the Earth," he said. "It's accumulating there, and it's inflating or causing the rocks around it to be pushed aside." It could go on for some time or be an early sign of a possible eruption....
Piñon, pine or spruce - beetles by many names deadly for trees While the causes of the aspen die-off remain unclear, the culprit behind the ongoing decimation of Colorado's conifer forests is no mystery: It's the beetles. Over the past decade, various beetles have killed more than 10 million conifers in Colorado forests, said Bob Cain, a U.S. Forest Service entomologist. The combination of aging, unnaturally dense forests and several years of severe drought allowed the mountain pine beetle epidemic to reach record levels in lodgepole and ponderosa pine forests. At the same time, bugs have feasted on other pines, spruce and fir trees across the state. According to federal and state foresters: • Mountain pine beetles attacked 1.3 million trees on 500,000 acres last year in the state, primarily in lodgepole pine forests of north-central Colorado. Ponderosa pine forests also experienced outbreaks. • Piñon ips beetles killed more than 9 million Colorado piñon pines, mainly in the southwestern and southern forests, in an epidemic that peaked two years ago....
Plan could mean 2,800 gas wells in Sweetwater County A proposal to extend the life of natural gas fields in southwest Wyoming could include the drilling of 2,800 new wells in Sweetwater County. Questar Exploration and Production Co., Wexpro Co. and other natural gas operators are proposing to drill new wells in Wyoming's Canyon Creek, Trail and Kinney fields over the next three decades. The active fields are located about 55 miles south of Point of Rocks in the southwest portion of Wyoming's Red Desert. The Bureau of Land Management is beginning work on an environmental impact statement, BLM spokeswoman Susan Davis said. The companies are seeking federal permission to develop natural gas resources further within the Vermillion Basin area of Sweetwater County, which includes the existing Canyon Creek and smaller Trail and Kinney natural gas fields. If the project is approved, the wells would be drilled over about a 30-year period, with as many as 200 wells possibly being drilled each year, according to company plans....
EPA Begins Cleanup of Idaho Mine Sites Steel bars block the arched opening to the Constitution Mine in Idaho's Silver Valley, a reminder that people for decades would hold beer parties in the cavernous elevator room. The former lead and zinc mine has been inactive since 1968, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this summer began the task of cleaning up the remote site to make it safe for recreational use. It's part of a massive decades-long cleanup of the Silver Valley, the second-largest Superfund site in the nation after Butte and Anaconda, Mont. "There were over 100 producing mines and 50 mill sites in this basin," said Bill Adams, manager of the Superfund project for the EPA. "A lot has been done and there is more to do." Indeed, cleanup of the entire Bunker Hill Superfund site is expected to take more than three decades and cost more than $350 million because the environmental degradation here was so immense....
Oregon community opts off the grid A twisty road leading out of Lake Billy Chinook and into a ponderosa-pine forest eventually takes you straight by the front gate of a very different kind of place. Behind the manned gate of the Three Rivers Recreation Area lie 4,000 acres of property and 450 homes, but not a single phone or power line. Residents in this subdivision of full- and part-time homeowners are entirely off the electrical and telephone grid, proud of it and wanting it to stay that way. They rely on solar power to provide houses with electricity. "You have no idea how bright the stars are," said Mary Johnson, 69, who bought property at Three Rivers with her husband in 1975 and moved there permanently in 1999. "No sirens, no trains. I would not live anywhere else." An hour from Bend, this hodgepodge of upscale houses, mobile homes, outhouses and shacks has been defying norms since the development began in the late 1960s. Until the advent of cellphones, the main mode of communication was CB radios. Some residents still have signs advertising their call names, nailed to trees at the ends of their driveways....
Idaho dam to be demolished after 89 years An aging, out-of-service dam on the Bear River in southeastern Idaho is expected to be demolished by today, a move environmentalists say will improve the habitat for dwindling numbers of Bonneville cutthroat trout. Pacificorp, the Utah-based utility that owns the 89-year-old Cove Dam near the town of Grace, says its destruction will also benefit utility customers. The 7.5 megawatt dam had not generated power for several years after a flow line broke and the cost of repairs was considered too high to justify in relation to the revenue from the electricity the dam produced. ''As the region has grown, a plant like this is a relatively small part of our resources,'' Pacificorp spokesman Dave Eskelsen told the Idaho State Journal. ''Hydroelectricity is still very valuable. It is always a hard choice to decommission a hydroelectric plant.'' Friday, two-thirds of the concrete dam built in 1917 had been removed as part of the $3.2 million project that will include site rehabilitation work that is expected to be completed in the spring....
BLM promises outfitters and others will get more attention Businesses with interests on the public lands, such as big-game outfitters, will get more attention as the Bureau of Land Management considers drilling applications. Officials once didn’t worry much about such potential conflicts, but as drilling has increased in western Colorado, “it’s a big deal now,” Catherine Robertson of the bureau’s Grand Junction field office told a Club 20 audience Saturday. Field offices are looking at ways to overlap private and public lands used by outfitters that also are prime areas for energy development, Robertson said. The bureau also tries to bring surface owners into the process when considering drill permits on their property, but it can’t force owners to participate, Robertson said. Some critics who take the bureau to task for visiting well sites annually instead of more often don’t know that the agency allocates its resources as needed, she said....
New Book Pokes Fun at Endangered Species Do environmentalists have a sense of humor? We're about to find out, because this book is aimed right where their funny bone ought to be. The Hunter's Guide to Endangered Species by "The Old Biologist" is a humorous and satirical take on endangered species and environmental protection. It covers the gamut, poking fun at the science behind the endangered species issue, then explaining how and where (zoos and wildlife refuges, of course) to hunt these hapless creatures. It also looks at particular species, and describes the very human character flaws that got them into trouble in the first place. To top it off, the book has recipes for cooking them (the California Condor Soup is a real crowd pleaser). Smart and witty, The Hunter's Guide to Endangered Species is designed to poke fun at a topic which is usually about as much fun as a heart attack, with everybody involved taking themselves way too seriously. This is the environmental/endangered species issue as seen through the eyes of a crotchety, politically incorrect old-time biologist, from the era when naturalists studied rare animals by shooting them....
Report Praises Effectiveness of Endangered Species Act Recovery Plans Although recovery of endangered species depends on a variety of factors, species with recovery plans fare better than those without, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The report detailed that recovery plans are a critical part of the government's implementation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and suggests that efforts to reform the law should keep the provision at the center of the statute. The ESA requires the federal government's two wildlife agencies - the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service - to list species determined to be threatened or endangered, to designate critical habitat and to develop recovery plans for the conservation and survival of listed species. The agencies are required to develop recovery plans unless officials determine a plan will not promote conservation of the species....
Restoration of Bay salt ponds might threaten snowy plover A plan to turn hundreds of acres of sun-baked salt ponds back into marshland will attract the California clapper rail and the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse, two endangered species that used to thrive in the South Bay in the late 19th century before the first salt ponds were constructed. On the other hand, desalinating the ponds and adding new vegetation could spell trouble for the western snowy plover, a skittish, threatened bird that has begun laying its eggs on the dry, salty beaches. Several other birds also depend on the supply of brine shrimp the salt ponds produce, including avocets, western sandpipers and cormorants. Some biologists worry that the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, a plan to open 15,000 acres of former Cargill salt ponds to Bay tides, could have unintended negative consequences for those birds while benefiting other species. Officials with the Coastal Conservancy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service face a difficult decision in choosing how much tidal action to let into the salt ponds, which stretch across the Bay to Redwood City and San Jose, acquired from Cargill in 2003....
USDA miscalculates cattle numbers in figuring drought aid A top official at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency apologized Monday to Kansas cattlemen for a miscalculation that will mean $3.8 million fewer dollars for a livestock drought assistance program than the state had been promised. John Johnson, deputy administrator for farm programs at the Farm Service Agency, said the error was discovered Friday when officials realized they had used Agricultural Statistics Service data that included the numbers of feedlot cattle for Kansas, Wyoming and Arizona. The Agriculture Department recalculated the allocations after it discovered it had erroneously credited Kansas for livestock in feed yards. The program is designed to help cattlemen who are struggling to pay for feed or find places for cattle to graze during a drought. "We apologize for the error - unfortunately it means a major reduction in Kansas and a minor adjustment in Wyoming and Arizona," Johnson said. Under revised figures the department received late Friday, Kansas' share of the $50 million program will be $948,511. That is significantly lower than the $4.78 million previously promised the state....
National Commission to Study Health, Environmental Impact of Industrial Farm Animal Production The challenges all livestock, dairy and poultry producers face with the reemergence of avian influenza and other zoonotic diseases will be one of the topics of a two-year study by the National Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production (NCIFAP), members of the commission announced here today. The independent NCIFAP was formed by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. The NCIFAP will conduct a two-year study of the public health, environmental, animal health and well-being and rural sociological impacts of concentrated animal feeding operations. The commission, chaired by former Kansas Governor and Archivist of the United States John Carlin, brings together accomplished individuals from a variety of backgrounds, including academia, public health, agricultural production, the food industry, veterinary medicine and the general public. At the end of the two-year study, the commission will release a report to the nation, outlining its findings and making recommendations to policy makers.....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Stuck calf makes for muddy mission It was a case of naked dedication. Dick had been to the state meeting. His committee had run late and it was after midnight when he got back to the ranch. They were practicing fall calving in his part of the Umpqua Valley of western Oregon. Rains had been making things mucky. As he mounted the steps, he stopped in his tracks. There in a pile, under the harsh porch light were his wife's clothes. Right down to the daintys. He looked around. He wasn't sure why he looked around, he just did. Earlier that evening at twilight, Mo - short for Maureen - his wife, had made the heifer check. She found none in the process of calving and was about to go to the house when she heard a plaintive bawl down by the pond. Working her way thorough the fresh cow pies and mud, shuck, she called it, she saw a 2-day-old black bally calf. He was standing elbow deep in the dark water. Mo looked down at her tennis shoes, looked up at the drizzling rain, gritted her teeth and stepped into the shallow end....
Surprise Development in Nevada Water Fight A big breakthough for Southern Nevada's plan to pipe water in from rural Nevada. The federal government announced it is dropping all opposition to the plan. The Monday announcement from the federal government came as hearings began in Carson City on the pipeline plan. The state water engineer is holding the hearings to decide whether to allow Southern Nevada to tap groundwater basins hundreds of miles to the north. At the beginning of the hearings, the Department of the Interior announced four federal agencies were dropping protests. They include Fish and Wildlife, the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Indian Affairs. In exchange, the Southern Nevada Water Authority has agreed to a comprehensive monitoring program. Opponents of the plan gathered outside of the hearings to protest what they are calling a "water theft" or a "water grab." Ranchers from rural White Pine County saying they fear for their way of life....
Outdoors group snubs southern Utah bill The Washington County Growth and Conservation Act of 2006 got a thumbs down from the Outdoor Industry Association this week. "Our public policy committee voted unanimously last week that we can't support the bill in its current form," said Amy Roberts, the association's director of government affairs. "Our main concern is the sell off of public lands and what we see as an unbalanced approach to wilderness." Washington County Commissioner Alan Gardner is in Washington, D.C., this week to testify before Congress about the bill, which is generating discussion around the nation. "If this bill becomes law, wilderness will lose absolutely no land," Gardner said. "There is nothing on the table for sale on the west side of the county. If it doesn't become law, we will lose the National Conservation Area, the off-road vehicle trail and protection for plants and so forth." The proposed legislation is slated to come before the House Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health on Thursday. Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, and Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, are sponsors of the bill....
Column - Bush’s “New Environmentalism:” What can we expect? Cooperative Conservation became an Executive Order August 26, 2004. Oh, you didn’t hear? The fanfare then was a whisper, but now it’s time to notice. Leaders of federal agencies responsible for the environment are coming to the public, holding “Listening Sessions” around the country. They’re inviting us to answer specific questions. Leaders will take responses back to Washington in the spirit of “cooperative conservation.” They say. Sounding sublime in this era of too many conflicts, some objectives may be genuine. But given the Bush Administration’s record for health, safety and environmental abuses, given that sites chosen for meetings aren’t exactly what you’d call cross-sections of the nation’s political leanings, given the national debt and an additional 13 percent 2007 budget cut to environmental protections, a cautionary, informed approach to this endeavor would seem prudent. Cooperative Conservation has been coined President Bush’s “New Environmentalism,” the honed down version of former Secretary of Interior Gale Norton’s public relations mantra, her Four C’s Credo: communication, consultation, and cooperation in service of conservation. In short, for conservation, have a conversation. An excellent goal, but define “conservation.”....
Scientists watching volcanic bulge on South Sister For a decade or so, a volcanic bulge has been pushing up over 150 square miles near the South Sister at a rate of perhaps an inch per year. Hikers and horse-riders cross it on the Pacific Crest Trail and may see sturdy metallic tripod topped by a white disk. Wires lead to a solar panel. A sign says "Volcano Monitoring Equipment: Do Not Disturb." Here, magma has pushed up the ground, which has been rising an inch or so per year since about 1997, a rise invisible to the naked eye. It began to slow last year, but scientists still watch the area, which has some of the more active magma in the Cascades. The bulge near the 10,358-foot mountain is the only rising ground along the Cascade Range, said Dan Dzurisin, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Cascade Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Wash. "What we think is there is a place where magma is slowly rising from deeper in the Earth," he said. "It's accumulating there, and it's inflating or causing the rocks around it to be pushed aside." It could go on for some time or be an early sign of a possible eruption....
Piñon, pine or spruce - beetles by many names deadly for trees While the causes of the aspen die-off remain unclear, the culprit behind the ongoing decimation of Colorado's conifer forests is no mystery: It's the beetles. Over the past decade, various beetles have killed more than 10 million conifers in Colorado forests, said Bob Cain, a U.S. Forest Service entomologist. The combination of aging, unnaturally dense forests and several years of severe drought allowed the mountain pine beetle epidemic to reach record levels in lodgepole and ponderosa pine forests. At the same time, bugs have feasted on other pines, spruce and fir trees across the state. According to federal and state foresters: • Mountain pine beetles attacked 1.3 million trees on 500,000 acres last year in the state, primarily in lodgepole pine forests of north-central Colorado. Ponderosa pine forests also experienced outbreaks. • Piñon ips beetles killed more than 9 million Colorado piñon pines, mainly in the southwestern and southern forests, in an epidemic that peaked two years ago....
Plan could mean 2,800 gas wells in Sweetwater County A proposal to extend the life of natural gas fields in southwest Wyoming could include the drilling of 2,800 new wells in Sweetwater County. Questar Exploration and Production Co., Wexpro Co. and other natural gas operators are proposing to drill new wells in Wyoming's Canyon Creek, Trail and Kinney fields over the next three decades. The active fields are located about 55 miles south of Point of Rocks in the southwest portion of Wyoming's Red Desert. The Bureau of Land Management is beginning work on an environmental impact statement, BLM spokeswoman Susan Davis said. The companies are seeking federal permission to develop natural gas resources further within the Vermillion Basin area of Sweetwater County, which includes the existing Canyon Creek and smaller Trail and Kinney natural gas fields. If the project is approved, the wells would be drilled over about a 30-year period, with as many as 200 wells possibly being drilled each year, according to company plans....
EPA Begins Cleanup of Idaho Mine Sites Steel bars block the arched opening to the Constitution Mine in Idaho's Silver Valley, a reminder that people for decades would hold beer parties in the cavernous elevator room. The former lead and zinc mine has been inactive since 1968, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this summer began the task of cleaning up the remote site to make it safe for recreational use. It's part of a massive decades-long cleanup of the Silver Valley, the second-largest Superfund site in the nation after Butte and Anaconda, Mont. "There were over 100 producing mines and 50 mill sites in this basin," said Bill Adams, manager of the Superfund project for the EPA. "A lot has been done and there is more to do." Indeed, cleanup of the entire Bunker Hill Superfund site is expected to take more than three decades and cost more than $350 million because the environmental degradation here was so immense....
Oregon community opts off the grid A twisty road leading out of Lake Billy Chinook and into a ponderosa-pine forest eventually takes you straight by the front gate of a very different kind of place. Behind the manned gate of the Three Rivers Recreation Area lie 4,000 acres of property and 450 homes, but not a single phone or power line. Residents in this subdivision of full- and part-time homeowners are entirely off the electrical and telephone grid, proud of it and wanting it to stay that way. They rely on solar power to provide houses with electricity. "You have no idea how bright the stars are," said Mary Johnson, 69, who bought property at Three Rivers with her husband in 1975 and moved there permanently in 1999. "No sirens, no trains. I would not live anywhere else." An hour from Bend, this hodgepodge of upscale houses, mobile homes, outhouses and shacks has been defying norms since the development began in the late 1960s. Until the advent of cellphones, the main mode of communication was CB radios. Some residents still have signs advertising their call names, nailed to trees at the ends of their driveways....
Idaho dam to be demolished after 89 years An aging, out-of-service dam on the Bear River in southeastern Idaho is expected to be demolished by today, a move environmentalists say will improve the habitat for dwindling numbers of Bonneville cutthroat trout. Pacificorp, the Utah-based utility that owns the 89-year-old Cove Dam near the town of Grace, says its destruction will also benefit utility customers. The 7.5 megawatt dam had not generated power for several years after a flow line broke and the cost of repairs was considered too high to justify in relation to the revenue from the electricity the dam produced. ''As the region has grown, a plant like this is a relatively small part of our resources,'' Pacificorp spokesman Dave Eskelsen told the Idaho State Journal. ''Hydroelectricity is still very valuable. It is always a hard choice to decommission a hydroelectric plant.'' Friday, two-thirds of the concrete dam built in 1917 had been removed as part of the $3.2 million project that will include site rehabilitation work that is expected to be completed in the spring....
BLM promises outfitters and others will get more attention Businesses with interests on the public lands, such as big-game outfitters, will get more attention as the Bureau of Land Management considers drilling applications. Officials once didn’t worry much about such potential conflicts, but as drilling has increased in western Colorado, “it’s a big deal now,” Catherine Robertson of the bureau’s Grand Junction field office told a Club 20 audience Saturday. Field offices are looking at ways to overlap private and public lands used by outfitters that also are prime areas for energy development, Robertson said. The bureau also tries to bring surface owners into the process when considering drill permits on their property, but it can’t force owners to participate, Robertson said. Some critics who take the bureau to task for visiting well sites annually instead of more often don’t know that the agency allocates its resources as needed, she said....
New Book Pokes Fun at Endangered Species Do environmentalists have a sense of humor? We're about to find out, because this book is aimed right where their funny bone ought to be. The Hunter's Guide to Endangered Species by "The Old Biologist" is a humorous and satirical take on endangered species and environmental protection. It covers the gamut, poking fun at the science behind the endangered species issue, then explaining how and where (zoos and wildlife refuges, of course) to hunt these hapless creatures. It also looks at particular species, and describes the very human character flaws that got them into trouble in the first place. To top it off, the book has recipes for cooking them (the California Condor Soup is a real crowd pleaser). Smart and witty, The Hunter's Guide to Endangered Species is designed to poke fun at a topic which is usually about as much fun as a heart attack, with everybody involved taking themselves way too seriously. This is the environmental/endangered species issue as seen through the eyes of a crotchety, politically incorrect old-time biologist, from the era when naturalists studied rare animals by shooting them....
Report Praises Effectiveness of Endangered Species Act Recovery Plans Although recovery of endangered species depends on a variety of factors, species with recovery plans fare better than those without, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The report detailed that recovery plans are a critical part of the government's implementation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and suggests that efforts to reform the law should keep the provision at the center of the statute. The ESA requires the federal government's two wildlife agencies - the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service - to list species determined to be threatened or endangered, to designate critical habitat and to develop recovery plans for the conservation and survival of listed species. The agencies are required to develop recovery plans unless officials determine a plan will not promote conservation of the species....
Restoration of Bay salt ponds might threaten snowy plover A plan to turn hundreds of acres of sun-baked salt ponds back into marshland will attract the California clapper rail and the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse, two endangered species that used to thrive in the South Bay in the late 19th century before the first salt ponds were constructed. On the other hand, desalinating the ponds and adding new vegetation could spell trouble for the western snowy plover, a skittish, threatened bird that has begun laying its eggs on the dry, salty beaches. Several other birds also depend on the supply of brine shrimp the salt ponds produce, including avocets, western sandpipers and cormorants. Some biologists worry that the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, a plan to open 15,000 acres of former Cargill salt ponds to Bay tides, could have unintended negative consequences for those birds while benefiting other species. Officials with the Coastal Conservancy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service face a difficult decision in choosing how much tidal action to let into the salt ponds, which stretch across the Bay to Redwood City and San Jose, acquired from Cargill in 2003....
USDA miscalculates cattle numbers in figuring drought aid A top official at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency apologized Monday to Kansas cattlemen for a miscalculation that will mean $3.8 million fewer dollars for a livestock drought assistance program than the state had been promised. John Johnson, deputy administrator for farm programs at the Farm Service Agency, said the error was discovered Friday when officials realized they had used Agricultural Statistics Service data that included the numbers of feedlot cattle for Kansas, Wyoming and Arizona. The Agriculture Department recalculated the allocations after it discovered it had erroneously credited Kansas for livestock in feed yards. The program is designed to help cattlemen who are struggling to pay for feed or find places for cattle to graze during a drought. "We apologize for the error - unfortunately it means a major reduction in Kansas and a minor adjustment in Wyoming and Arizona," Johnson said. Under revised figures the department received late Friday, Kansas' share of the $50 million program will be $948,511. That is significantly lower than the $4.78 million previously promised the state....
National Commission to Study Health, Environmental Impact of Industrial Farm Animal Production The challenges all livestock, dairy and poultry producers face with the reemergence of avian influenza and other zoonotic diseases will be one of the topics of a two-year study by the National Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production (NCIFAP), members of the commission announced here today. The independent NCIFAP was formed by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. The NCIFAP will conduct a two-year study of the public health, environmental, animal health and well-being and rural sociological impacts of concentrated animal feeding operations. The commission, chaired by former Kansas Governor and Archivist of the United States John Carlin, brings together accomplished individuals from a variety of backgrounds, including academia, public health, agricultural production, the food industry, veterinary medicine and the general public. At the end of the two-year study, the commission will release a report to the nation, outlining its findings and making recommendations to policy makers.....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Stuck calf makes for muddy mission It was a case of naked dedication. Dick had been to the state meeting. His committee had run late and it was after midnight when he got back to the ranch. They were practicing fall calving in his part of the Umpqua Valley of western Oregon. Rains had been making things mucky. As he mounted the steps, he stopped in his tracks. There in a pile, under the harsh porch light were his wife's clothes. Right down to the daintys. He looked around. He wasn't sure why he looked around, he just did. Earlier that evening at twilight, Mo - short for Maureen - his wife, had made the heifer check. She found none in the process of calving and was about to go to the house when she heard a plaintive bawl down by the pond. Working her way thorough the fresh cow pies and mud, shuck, she called it, she saw a 2-day-old black bally calf. He was standing elbow deep in the dark water. Mo looked down at her tennis shoes, looked up at the drizzling rain, gritted her teeth and stepped into the shallow end....
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